The Offer (CC / ALL / YTEEN) Ch. 31 - 11 / 12 / 07

Post by **Island Breeze** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 3:51 am

Great chapters! So now we know what Dave wants.

“In part, but not really. Those are his projects, you can say. What Dave really does is to get information and sell it later on; all kind of information, from all kind of sources. He also uses it as he sees fit.”

“Blackmail?” Isabel elaborated.

“Sure, why not? To intimidate, to get favors, to keep people where he wants them to be. Just about anything you can think of.”

“So he has some sort of spy agency?” Max said, a little confused.

“No, he’s the intermediary between the spies and whoever they work for. Do you have any idea how hard it is to pass information from one point to the other? Most of the work he does is just that, doing that particular service. There’s no more lucrative value than information. And you know what they say about information: It’s power. That’s why he researches as well… it’s kind of a circle, I guess. Projects create information as well.”

“And now we are his next project,” Max said as a matter of fact. Michael knew that his friend was barely holding in check, his whole body tense, sending angry vibes impossible to miss.

That could be ominous. What if Dave decides to provide his knowledge to the wrong people... which come to think of it, could be almost anyone.

And this Jake... I wonder about him.

I also wondered about Max taking the sleeping pill.

Realization had hit her then. He wasn’t thinking about taking the whole bottle, but just one pill. Their dad always said that those pills were miraculous, made him sleep like a rock. The problem was that they didn’t know how it would affect them. When they were kids they never got sick, so why bother with trying any kind of medicine, right? And when they had grown up a little bit more, and read a little bit more about biology, a new fear had settled in their minds: What would happen if they had to take medicines? Would it react the same way? So Max reading and reading about the warnings and all that over and over again was to see if somehow he could guess if it was safe or not. But the fear of dreaming overcame the fear of the unknown.

I never thought about that before... since they never got sick. I guess that's fortunate. But it looks like Dave wants to find out what different drugs do to them. That just has danger written all over it! Not just because of what their reactions could be, but can you imagine Pierce or someone like him knowing what drugs will knock them off or get them high or whatever? And Dave sells information.

I thought it was funny that Dave makes himself scarce whenever Samantha comes around.

I think it was Samantha. Little sister scares the big bad wolf! Hehe!

Misha · Post by **Misha** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 9:54 pm

Thanks for coming back!

Island Breeze, thanks for the feedback! Well, don't jump too fast into thinking you know what Dave wants, though your conclusions were amusing :D It's just not that easy... or simple

Oh, and it is Ray -not Dave- who makes himself scarce when Samantha is coming :D

So, now is time to see how it all went with Kyle on his interview :D

X
Sparks

Kyle walked through the corridor feeling as if he were actually trespassing the borders to the Twilight Zone. Now that he was reflecting on it, he had had that feeling ever since he had woken up on that tiny blue room no more than two days ago. Gosh! Only two days? And now he was walking as a “free” man? That was almost unbelievable… But as he was so fond of saying: No conditions are permanent. No conditions are reliable. Nothing is self.

He wondered for a brief moment if now was the time to change religions or philosophies again, in order to find a balance in an upside down world. After all, when little green men had invaded his life, Buddhism had been the perfect way –the salvation, really- for his sanity. Now the world had shifted again, had thrown at him unthinkable possibilities, and yet here he was, dealing with it.

He had been surprised back in that summer away from Roswell almost three years ago, about how really good he had been at dealing with it. “It” meaning knowing that not only aliens did exist, but that he had gone to school with three of them for most of his life. He hadn’t told a soul, more out of knowing that no one would believe him than to protect the pod squad’s secret, but still, the fact remained: Kyle had kept his mouth shut, and had done so ever since, no matter what.

Now he was walking to meet a man who expected him to tell him a great deal about said secret, and that made Kyle feel uncomfortable. It almost made him feel like a traitor. Even if the thought was foolish and very well misplaced, Kyle couldn’t help himself. He had gone over in his head all night about what he was supposed to say and what he wasn’t supposed to say. The worst part was, according to what they had agreed in a van in the middle of nowhere, everything that they hadn’t discussed was supposed to remain as it was. Kyle sighed. Those were a lot of “supposed to’s” in one thought…

The good thing was, whatever he said, Kyle would have time later on to brief the others, so they would stick to the same stories. He wondered why Dave hadn’t made them all be questioned at the same time, like the police did, so they couldn’t put their stories straight. Wasn’t Dave expecting them to lie to him? Because Kyle could think of a lot of words to describe Dave, and naïve wasn’t one of them. Calculated was, so Kyle suspected that there was a bigger reason for these meetings to take place one a day, with each one of them.

He wished he could know why. He wished too he didn’t have to walk all the way up to Dave’s office alone. Liz and Maria had stayed at the Gym. The Pod Squad had gone together to the Lab. But poor innocent Kyle had to go –with his dark thoughts following close by- all by himself, while wallowing in doom and gloom. Kyle sighed again, this time trying to find his center, trying to clear his mind. Something he was actually succeeding at until he stepped in front of the elevator that would bring him to the surface, and looked at himself reflected in the metallic doors. A tiny spark caught his eyes around his left hand, so briefly and so elusive, that Kyle wasn’t sure if he had actually seen it or if his mind was playing tricks on him.

Was it a blue spark or a green spark? Kyle frenetically thought, as the double doors opened. Because if it had been a blue one, then it could have been just static, right? On the other hand, if it had been green, then… Kyle looked at his much better reflected self in the mirrors inside the elevator that was now going up –way up- and didn’t see either blue or green, just plain white. He was white as a paper sheet.

Ever since last November, when his powers had started to show, he had this constant feeling in the tips of his fingers, like a tickle. Very subtle and very not visible at all. Liz had told him that she too felt it. But she was so used to it by then, that she didn’t pay attention to it. Kyle had forgotten all about the tickle too, apparently getting used to it as well, when he had stopped glowing in the dark. It hadn’t been till their experience in the blue rooms that he had actually remembered the tickling when neither Max, nor Isabel, nor Michael had had their powers. But that tickle had been there, both in Liz’s and in his fingertips, assuring them that their powers –or whatever they were at that stage- were still very present.

Right now Kyle wished his powers would skip attendance and desert him… What the hell was he going to do if he started to spark all around Dave’s office? Calm yourself down, Kyle said in his mind, closing his eyes, and find your center… oh, and by the way, stop sparkling too… His stomach flinched, and he wasn’t sure if he was glad or not for having skipped breakfast earlier. Gosh, he was going to be a nervous mess if he didn’t get a grip on himself ipso facto.

By the time the doors opened Kyle wasn’t feeling any better… but at least he wasn’t feeling any worse either. That had to count, right? If he kept concentrating on the “good” points and not the “bad” points, he would get himself under control. For a moment he wondered if that was how Max managed to keep that appearance of being calmed and in control 95% of the time.

Kyle stepped out of the elevator into the 9 foot corridor that separated said elevator from the main room where they had entered less than two days before –and again, the thought startled him- and started walking. He glanced at his watch, 6:56, clenched his fingers, fidgeted with the cords of his jacket, and passed his hands –both at different times- through his hair before he had reached the doors that separated the corridor from the big living room. The only thing that actually made a ghost of a smile appear on his lips before entering the room was that he hadn’t seen any other spark. That had to count for something too, right?

The door had an electronic key, so, remembering what Liz had said about the white cards being keys, he took his out and slid it through the slot. The door opened without a sound, and Kyle found himself staring at the dark blue sofas in the middle of the living room. He wondered if there was a reason for things to be so blue, since the floor in the complex –not to mention their detention cells- had also been blue. However, his eyes left the furniture and turned to his left. A door was open in the middle of the wall, a door he hadn’t noticed before.

It was creepy how things could be so damned concealed in this place. First the screens that looked like paintings –or fridge’s doors- and now doors that didn’t look like doors but parts of walls. Of course, he couldn’t forget that he wasn’t even sure if this Dave was the real Dave.

“If he isn’t the genuine Dave,” Liz had said the night before, after William had gone, “we have to assume he has to be speaking with all his authority, right? This person wouldn’t be making deals and setting rules without Dave’s permission… One way or another, whoever is making this deal, must be aware of everything that is said about it.” Liz had ended, logically and rationally explaining her thoughts, as she usually did.

“Great,” Michael had grunted, finishing the last of his soda, clearly not happy with this situation.

“We are forgetting something,” Max had cut in, “if this person isn’t Dave, then why did I get a flash of him? It wouldn’t make sense what I saw…”

“It would if this fake Dave is as concerned about us staying here as the real one is…” Isabel had corrected her brother.

Which had left them right where they had begun: With no clue as to who the hell they were going to meet all week long… not to mention who the hell had they made a deal with.

Leaving his musing behind, Kyle walked straight to the large room that could now be seen. At almost 7:00 a.m. on a February morning, there wasn’t much light coming from the huge windows. The room, however, was well lit up with white light coming from a very high placed lamp in the ceiling. Kyle stood in front of the door frame, unsure of what to do. In the middle of the room was a huge –and he meant huge- black wood desk, that had been cleared of everything but one thing: A puzzle. Or more likely, hundreds, if not thousands, of puzzle pieces. Dave was sitting at the other end of the desk, with the windows at his back, carefully selecting pieces here and there. It seemed to Kyle as if Dave were completely absorbed in this task and had equally completely forgotten about his appointment. His fingertips started to tickle, and Kyle’s sudden movement to place them –conceal them- inside his jacket pockets seemed to get Dave’s attention.

And before that awful interrogation started –because who was he kidding? Appointment? Sure…- Kyle prayed to all the High Powers that he could remember everything there was to remember. He just really hoped he wasn’t going to blow this up, not in a figurative way and most certainly not in a literal way.

* * *

Dave would have laughed at that instant if he had known that he had thought exactly the same thing that Jake did when his appointment arrived: Kyle looked as if he was just minutes away from fainting. The difference was that Dave didn’t actually say it aloud.

“Come in,” Dave told Kyle, discretely looking at his watch. Years of being with Jake had made him, too, start to count things. Luckily for him, he had gotten rid of the habit almost as fast as it had started to sink in, except that he was always counting the seconds for a short time after seeing the hour. Since last time he had checked the hour it had been 6:23:48, he was still counting them in his head. He wasn’t expecting Kyle till 7:00 a.m., and –as he already knew- it was 6:57:12.

Kyle entered, uncertain of what to do, so Dave gestured to him to sit down opposite to him.

“Sorry about the mess,” he said leaving the puzzle pieces he had been working with at one side, “early birthday present,” he quietly added, almost with a guilty expression, as a way of explaining why he was putting a puzzle together in a middle of an interview. Of course, the puzzle had its purpose, but he didn’t have to tell that to Kyle, did he? Let’s see if they can figure it out.

“You like puzzles?” Kyle asked, clearly seeking a way of starting a conversation. For someone who was probably thinking he was walking into a lion’s den –a.k.a. interrogation- he was way too eager to talk.

“I love puzzles,” Dave truthfully said, “two dimensional, three dimensional, solid or abstract. I’ve loved them all since I can remember. Ever since Jake found out, he’s always giving me a different puzzle every year. I’ve been working on this one since 4:00 this morning. They are addictive you know?”

“¿4:00 a.m.?” Kyle said incredulous. That’s it, Kyle, think this is a normal conversation within normal circumstances… it’s the only way you are going to be honest with me. Or as honest as you’re gonna get with me.

“I never really sleep much. Besides, it’s a 15,000 pieces puzzle, so if I want to finish it before I have to leave the complex, I’d better hurry up.”

“What is it about?” Kyle said leaning forward to see a group of pieces, trying to decipher the entire picture by only having less than 15 parts. Welcome to my world, Dave silently thought.

“A desert storm. I’ve already memorized the picture so I don’t have to go back at it every minute. And speaking of that,” Dave said as if it wasn’t a big deal –which really wasn’t for him- he took one piece and placed it randomly at his left, “this room has no recording devices in it. Everything you say will stay between you, me, and this puzzle.”

Kyle stopped looking at the pieces and looked straight at him, almost as if saying: Is that supposed to make me feel better?

“So, Kyle,” Dave continued with his pieces search, being the first to quit the staring contest. Really, there was no point in sending the unspoken message that Dave was the one who had the upper hand here, if only by making Kyle lower his eyes first. Trust wasn’t built by competition. Fitting two pieces together, Dave looked at Kyle again as casually as he could master. He was about to ask something to which he wanted to see Kyle’s reaction.

“You know, you kids are a puzzle as well. That’s why I’m so intrigued with you.” Kyle kept silent, his hands in his pockets for all Dave could tell, clearly uncertain of what to do or say. “But you know, there are some things that intrigue me more than others, and that’s where I hope to find answers. Like, you know, why are you traveling with them?” Dave fitted a third piece into his other two, but leveled his eyes just in time to catch Kyle’s reaction.

Kyle was surprised. If Dave had been able to read minds, he would have read something along the lines why the hell didn’t we think about that? and would have proceeded to see a cascade of events, starting with a bullet wound and a glowing hand, culminating with a green spark in front of an elevator. But of course, Dave was only human, and an unchanged one, for that matter, so all he could see was Kyle lowering his eyes to no point in particular of the black wood desk, clearly trying to figure out how best to answer this.

The question was legitimate. Dave had some ideas and theories as to why Kyle Valenti was riding with the other five teenagers who had “legitimate” reasons to be on the road. That was why he had picked Kyle to be the first, too. Whatever the reason, Kyle was the biggest outsider of this group, so Kyle would give him the bases to seek what he needed to know from each one of them. In this puzzle, Kyle was the outer limit, the frame that was supposed to be always put together first. Oh yeah, Dave just plain loved puzzles.

“Max saved my life,” Kyle said, still his eyes unseeing, almost as if he were lost in a moment years behind. Dave stopped looking for the fourth piece to join the other three.

“How?” He simply asked, frowning a little, looking at Kyle in the eyes again. This hadn’t been in his ideas or theories, not really.

“It’s a pretty long story,” Kyle said, bringing his eyesight to the present, for the first time putting his hands over the desk. Dave noticed too that color was returning to Kyle’s skin. Whatever was crossing the nineteen year old’s mind, it was clear that he was more than fine with it. “But the main thing you should know is that, you are searching for aliens, and there are none in this story… not in this group, anyway. Max… Isabel and Michael… they are not aliens, and you should not think of them like that. Hell, they are more human than half the people who are in this story.” Kyle emphasized pointing at him, trying to make his point as clear as he could.

“Well Kyle, you said it is a long story, and this is a very big puzzle. I think there’s time.” Dave said smiling, leaning back in his chair. He knew he was going to like these interviews, not only because they would give him the other pieces he needed in order to understand his… guests, but because he was going to get to know them and how they viewed themselves and each other in this tight little group of theirs.

When Kyle had started with the fact that he and Liz had been dating for a while before Max had saved Liz’s life, Dave had frowned even more deeply than the first time around. He already knew they had dated, of course, but hearing Kyle saying it as the first thing seemed odd to him. And since Dave had never been a good listener without having something else to do with his hands, by the time Kyle had reached the part where he had finally decided to make peace with Max because of some radio contest, Dave had already put together all the bottom line of his puzzle.

He paid particular attention to the fact that Max could get drunk, and also knew that Jake would get wide-eyed and start on a rant about bio-chemistry or something of the sort. Sure, Dave had the brains for knowing such things, but he just wasn’t all that interested. His strength lay in numbers, in abstract concepts, not in cells, and neurons, and proteins. That was why he and Jake could work so perfectly well: They both complemented each other’s strengths.

“And all that time I was in the dark,” Kyle continued, finally joining him in trying to put two pieces together, failing miserably at it, “so I was always thinking that Max and their group were involved in pretty bad stuff. I mean, Dad was seriously obsessed with him, until the whole Hubble incident, where that wacko almost killed Max.”

Hubble. Dave’s brain made a quick review. An alien hunter. A shooting. Something that would come a year later to haunt former Sheriff Valenti. But alien hunters and shootings weren’t part of Kyle’s “expertise”. This was something Dave had to investigate directly from the source: That wacko almost killed Max. So Max must knew something about it… And Kyle had been right, this was indeed a long story, and at no point could Dave decipher where the dark haired boy had saved Kyle’s life. How had Kyle gotten involved in all this?

So, for another half an hour, Kyle continued, this time bringing Tess. Tess was the mystery in this whole mess. She wasn’t just “a” piece, she was like a quarter of the whole 15,000 pieces puzzle. They barely had information about her, about her disappearance and much less about her returning home. Tess was a subject he would actually raise with each one of them, because he knew that was the only way he was going to get a somewhat clear picture of the fourth hybrid. Or so he hoped.

In that same half hour, Kyle efficiently pointed out how, even if he had been in the dark right then, the Special Unit had finally made their move. How Nasedo, the real shapeshifter, as Kyle had emphasized, had also made his move, endangering Liz’s life and, by extension, the whole group’s survival.

“And they got him, they got Max” Kyle said, putting aside his pieces, clearly attempting to sound as serious as he could. Dave also left his “distraction” aside and looked at Kyle. Dave knew what was next with this part. And he hated it. For more reasons than any of them –except maybe Max himself- could have.

“He never talks about it,” Kyle said lowering his voice, making Dave feel as if Kyle was telling him this as some sort of confidence. Just between Kyle, Dave and the puzzle. “I know he has never told Liz about it either, and the most that I have ever talked to him about it was when he said as a non-comment that he had learned to control his dreams in order to be able to sleep.”

That had gotten Dave’s attention in an instant.

“He controls them?”

“He said so…” Kyle said, looking as if he’d rather not have mentioned that.

“No, no, I know few people can do that, but… Max is already the controlling type, isn’t he? You would believe he could at least lose it in dreams…”

“You would believe there aren’t such hells as the one Max went through. No reasons at all to control one’s dreams.” Kyle’s voice sounded cold this time. He was actually defending his friend in a very subtle way. So Dave finally got Kyle’s point for his very long story –one that wasn’t finished yet, by the way. He had told him all about Max’s shyness, and Max’s jealousy and Max’s suffering that made him so… human. And even if that was the main point, he hadn’t left the others outside either, pointing out as well how lost they had been that first years after sharing their secret. Of course Kyle had had the most trouble with Max, who had “kidnapped” Liz from his side, turned his dad into a stalker and without wanting it, dragging him, ultimately, into a life on the roads.

“You see,” Kyle proceeded, “I was one of those who thought the worst about Max Evans and I didn’t even factor in that he was half alien. Hell, I was probably the only one who actually had the right reasons to not like him, and yet I do now. But for what Isabel once told me on one of our road trips, what she thought Pierce did to Max gave her nightmares, and all Pierce had was all these false conclusions about Max because he happened to have the wrong set of genes. So, I don’t know what you think about Max or Michael or Isabel, but don’t do that, okay?”

“Don’t jump to conclusions?” Dave said, amused at Kyle’s semi-explosion. “I think that’s why I’m actually hearing you all out, don’t you think? Get to know you, and kind of like you for all the right reasons. But you haven’t told me yet, how did you get involved in all of this? Directly and knowingly, I mean”

So, in another half an hour, with as much detail as Kyle could remember, he finally got around to answering Dave’s second question: How had Max Evans saved Kyle’s life. “Let me see if I’ve got this straight,” Dave had said, leaning over the desk, looking straight at him, “Max saved you and you felt indebted to him for the rest of your natural life? That’s just it?” Sure, he had read that a lot in novels, but it had hardly happened in real life. No one stayed with another person just because of that sole incident. There had to be other reasons, other conveniences, for that matter. At least, that was how Dave thought of it.

“Hell, that’s so not just it,” Kyle said, taking a sip of the second soda that Dave had giving him like an hour before. “That’s how things started out for me. But Max saving my life, and the fact that he was, well, you know… an alien… that changed me. That’s why I went on the road with them. I do owe him, but not just Max. They became my family.”

Before his watch marked 11:00 a.m. Dave had heard pretty much all about how Kyle had ended up considering them family, and how a blonde’s treachery had felt like a sister’s betrayal. A sister who had returned, just to lose a son. Oh, did Dave want to know about that. But this, again, wasn’t Kyle’s subject to talk about. Dave wasn’t even sure of how he was going to address this particular part to Max, but he was sure that his off-the-chart IQ would figure out something by Saturday morning.

“When we gathered outside in the desert, it was just clear to me,” Kyle said, trying to put two pieces together, again, and this time actually succeeding at it. By now he had half the line of the upper frame. “There was nothing for me in Roswell. No life, no future to pursue. No future I liked, anyway. And Alex had been right that day at the cave: I am part of something amazing. I mean, isn’t that what intrigued you in the first place?” Dave stopped in midair, totally forgetting he had finally found the piece he had been looking for, and for one moment he felt somehow busted. Still, years of practice paid off, because all Kyle would perceive was a mildly amused expression.

“What do you mean?” Dave asked with a small frown, his tone even.

“Why you want them, why you are protecting them, in this twisted way of yours. You want to be part of it, don’t you?” Kyle said with expectation in his eyes, almost as if he had finally figured out Dave’s real motives.

Dave smiled, lowering his eyes to the desk, placing the puzzle piece with another one, trying to look as if he had actually been busted. “Well… that’s why I didn’t come earlier into the picture, if you like. I didn’t want to shatter the illusion of that amazing life.” It was Kyle’s turn to frown.

“I thought you said you didn’t know what to do with them back then…”

“I also said I was watching them to try to figure them out. You are right, Kyle, this knowledge is amazing. What you know, what you’ve lived is something terribly unique. And I know one or two things about being unique… and about being caged… They were already unique, and I guess part of me just wanted to see them free. That was, of course, after they acted like your ordinary teenagers with your ordinary trouble…”

“You would have come for them earlier otherwise? Like Pierce did?” Kyle asked, forgetting all about his pieces and staring into Dave’s eyes. They say that the best way to catch a liar is to see into their eyes, but that didn’t quite apply to Dave. He had mastered the art of lying since he was seven. So Kyle trying to see if he was lying or not was a futile act, although Dave wasn’t going to take Kyle’s hope away. So he kept his eyes pinned to Kyle’s.

“Maybe. I don’t know. Circumstances are always changing. But you have to factor in, Kyle, that by the time I finally found the truth about Max, he had healed children. Alien invaders would have not taken such… risk. Still, I think we both felt the same thing about them: They are just trying to have a life.”

“If you already know that, why are you doing this? Why are you so interested in their lives?” Kyle asked in an upsetting tone, almost outraged. Why was Dave messing with them?

Dave shrugged. “Wouldn’t you want to know the whole story of those who are living that amazing life? Six billion people out there don’t have a clue about this. Who knows, Kyle, maybe in six thousand years our names are going to be part of history too. But that’s not the main thing. Human, alien, hybrid, whatever, the six of you are now under my wing, but you are also getting to know things that same six billion people out there don’t know about me. I have to make sure I know everything about who I am dealing with.”

“What if you decide we are too much of a risk?” Kyle asked cautiously, clearly considering every single word he had said since 7:00 a.m.

“Kyle, if you were that much of a risk, you wouldn’t be here,” Dave answered smiling.

“Or maybe, we wouldn’t be talking to you, right?” There was something odd about the way Kyle had said that, almost with a sarcastic undertone. What was Kyle aiming for? And then it hit him.

“You’ve met Jeremy,” Dave said leaning back in his chair, this time smiling more broadly. “Ray told me yesterday, that’s true. I bet you are wondering just about now who you are dealing with, uh? Am I the genuine article?” Dave leaned over his desk, lowering his voice to just above a whisper. He wasn’t exactly the theatrical type, but he enjoyed the suspense. “Let me tell you a little secret, Kyle: I’ve been having this chase, this mouse-cat chase ever since I started to work with Network Keepers. They love it, I like it, and it spreads one hell of a lot of rumors about me that I gladly encourage. When you talk to Jeremy next week, he’ll tell you he has confirmed visual contact with the mythical Dave in six other places over three different continents. Trust me, I’ll make sure of it.”

Straightening himself up in his chair, Dave continued talking, now with a clear tone. “But even if neither of you believe I’m the real Dave, trust that my words are real. I never fool around with that. Never. And none of my other representatives would. You think you have a tight deal? You don’t want to know what kind of deal they have.”

Kyle didn’t move a muscle, staring at Dave, obviously surprised at this little outburst of confidentiality. But it was all calculated, really. There were things they had to know and others they had to suspect. And of course, there were others that would remain in the dark for quite a while. Dave knew that by keeping them close by here – or anywhere, for that matter- rumors about who he was and what he looked like and all sorts of stupid theories would sooner or later reach their ears. He couldn’t afford them looking too closely into his profile; that they would go investigating just to clear out the mist that surrounded his person. So a little bit of the truth would have to be enough to sustain their curiosity. Jeremy and any Network Keeper could go around with their theories, and the kids would still be all right. After all, he was making them part of the “big” secret, wasn’t he?

Dave stood up in order to reach a far away piece, leaving his musings about truths and omissions aside. “Do you miss Roswell, Kyle?”

Kyle had been staring at him, clearly lost in thought about Dave’s last words, which coincidentally matched Liz’s earlier words, though Dave wasn’t aware of that. Snapping out of it, Kyle focused again on finding the next piece in his ever growing line.

“Of course I do. I’ve missed Dad every single day since we left.”

“You miss your home town even if you don’t have a future there?”

“It doesn’t mean I don’t have a past there,” Kyle defensively answered.

Dave lifted both hands in a gesture of peace. “Sorry, my bad. Anyway, what were they like? You know, when you were all kids…”

Kyle’s stomach growled before a word could leave his mouth. Kyle looked slightly embarrassed as he was placing a piece next to another, trying to ignore his hunger. Dave looked at his watch, absently saying: “I keep forgetting you kids don’t eat,” clearly remembering how Liz and Maria’s stomachs had cut him out two days before. It was 11:27:13 a.m. by then, and Dave’s stomach also protested for the lack of food since 6:00 a.m. He had just completely forgotten to eat, a problem that had given him some serious trouble about ten years ago. Still, on occasions like this one –not only hearing a story he had wanted to hear for two years now, but putting this puzzle together as well- he kept forgetting to eat at proper hours.

“I hope you like sandwiches, because that’s all I have up here,” Dave told Kyle, going to one side of the concealed office. Just like Jake had his mini fridge and mini cupboard, so did Dave. It was funny, he thought, because the main reason for all of this being here was because of his older friend. Jake was always grabbing food everywhere.

When Dave had offered Kyle a soda some two hours ago and another one an hour after that, Kyle had accepted but had also stayed seated on his side of the desk. This time his guest actually stood up, a little bit hesitantly, but clearly going to see what kind of sandwiches was Dave talking about.

“Anything without red meat would do,” Kyle said as Dave was rummaging through the four or five submarine kind of sandwiches stocked in there. Dave made a mental note about cleaning up this place before his departure on Saturday night.

“Tuna?” Dave offered, raising an eyebrow to Kyle.

“Sure. You have any more sodas in there?” Kyle asked while taking the large tuna submarine out of Dave’s hand.

“Diet Coke?”

“I’m not that healthy,” Kyle said grinning, Dave turning around to fetch him a non diet soda, and getting himself the other tuna sandwich in there. Luckily for Dave, both Ray and Jake despised the fish-kind sandwiches, so usually those were always available.

Both men remained standing, leaning over the wood cupboard that occupied the whole length of the wall. Even in this interlude, part of Dave’s mind was mentally placing pieces together. He knew he was going to do that all week long too. He had put way too many puzzles together in his life to not know it.

“What does that mean?” Kyle asked staring at the opposite wall. A 9 feet by 9 feet square was hanging there. A 16 x 16 math matrix was neatly written on it. The 16 rows and 16 columns of black numbers didn’t quiet look fashionable, or even remotely like a decoration in there. Probably the only place where they would actually fit as decoration would be at a math laboratory or some eminence math whiz’s office... oh yeah, he was a math whiz and this was his office too… Shrugging more to himself than to Kyle, Dave simply replied: “Decoration.”

Kyle’s lack of understanding didn’t make Dave want to extend on his explanation. “So, how were you all at the age of 7? Did you think you were all going to grow into the almost adults you are now?”

The once athlete of the month at West Roswell High School actually laughed at Dave’s question. “You mean if I thought I would become a Buddhist cracking jokes at the Ice Princess? That answer is easy: Not a snowball’s chance in hell.” Kyle sipped his soda, and placing it over the wood surface, took on a more serious note. “None of us had a clue that we would end up together… and certainly if we had, we wouldn’t have thought it would be like this.” Kyle ended, emphasizing the last word. There wasn’t regret in his words, not really, just a little twinge of resignation, Dave guessed. It was the voice of a man who had come to terms with his reality and had accepted it, even trying to make the best of it. A voice Dave often heard in Jake’s words, and just as many times in his own words.

“I’ve known Liz since the first grade in Elementary School, though we didn’t become friends till freshman year,” Kyle continued, oblivious to Dave’s insights, clearly more comfortably now than just four and half hours ago. “And Maria came into the picture the next year. Max, Isabel and Michael arrived in the third year, if I remember correctly. Alex a year after.”

“They were already together by then? The three of them?”

“No… I think Max and Isabel met with Michael till then. I believe Max and Isabel used to go to an Elementary school close by Goddard High until their parents moved to their new house. That’s how they ended up with us. I’ve never heard Michael’s story, but Michael is not exactly the let’s-talk-about-my-past kind of guy, you know?”

Oh, did Dave know about that. He had had a really hard time factoring Michael into everything, because not only wasn’t there much to piece together about Michael’s past, and Michael’s life in general, but because Michael himself could be really unpredictable. Still, Dave only nodded his understanding to Kyle while biting his tuna sandwich, Kyle doing so himself.

“They were a strange trio…” Kyle reflected, his eyes lost in some distant memory. “I mean, Maria and Liz were instant friends in the second year. You couldn’t see one without the other, and it was cool, you know? Best friends and all. But with the pod squad…” Even if Kyle wasn’t looking, Dave arched both eyebrows at Kyle’s pet name of the “strange trio”. It was pretty amusing.

“They weren’t instant best friends?” Dave inquired after Kyle’s silence had prolonged a little bit too much, clearly seeking the right words.

“No, it wasn’t that, it was that they were too tight, you know? Too protective and always so intense. You couldn’t say a thing about Michael without Isabel giving you one of her patented ice glares. And you really didn’t want to have Isabel pissed off at you, for some reason… Of course, Michael himself was a problem you didn’t want to bring upon yourself either. And then there was Max… the quiet type…” Kyle said, still lost in thought, somehow finding his last statement curious.

Dave had researched everything there was to know about their school years, both in elementary school and high school, but grades, gossips, and teachers’ musings didn’t exactly make a complete picture. This was the first hand information he needed to put these pieces together. What would it be like to look for trouble with aliens? Or to stay out of it if you were one…

“You never messed with them? Or one of your friends?”

“I was never the mean kind of kid… but sure there were others. Except that… Max and Michael were pretty much untouchable. Michael for the obvious reasons. You picked a fight with him, you were sure going to suffer something back, and it wasn’t going to be nice. You could see it in his eyes. And well, they were always together, so picking on Max meant picking on Michael as well… but still… even if Max had been alone, he had this, I don’t know, this presence I guess. Kids sense that, you know? I bet if Max had gotten into trouble he would have been perfectly able to fight back.” Kyle ended up, shrugging.

It was hard to picture a little Max fighting back, though he had no problem envisioning a little Michael in the same act. The fact that Max’s fight record was zero and Michael’s was high on the scale did help a lot in that insight.

“And Isabel was the ‘Ice Princess’,” Dave pressed, not wanting Kyle to stop recalling the oh so important past.

“I don’t know who came up with the term, but she had earned it by freshman year, I assure you. The way she looked at you when she didn’t approve of what you were doing… that was cold… But what was glacial was if anyone, and I mean anyone picked on either Max or Michael, as I have already told you. The three of them are so protective of themselves. They have always stuck with each other no matter what…” Kyle trailed off, giving Dave the sensation that Kyle wasn’t saying everything there was to say, or that he wasn’t being exactly accurate with his last words. Still, Dave let it pass. Others would fill in the gaps.

“And you know what?” Kyle said turning to look at him, his submarine half forgotten in his left hand, “when we became part of their tight little circle, we also became protective of them.”

“I understand that…” Dave said lowering his hand to get his soda.

“No, no, I’m not just saying it. Don’t take this wrong, but if you harm them don’t think that your problems would be over with us.”

“That I also know, Kyle. And I also respect it. Don’t think this is just about the three of them. You three are a major factor in their lives, and main pieces in the puzzle.” Kyle just looked at him with a slight suspiciousness in his eyes. Dave guessed that Kyle knew, just as well as he did, that there was not much they could actually do against Dave, or against the Special Unit or against whoever or whatever came after the ‘pod squad’, but still they would try. And the man who had offered a chance at a normal life did respect that.

* * *

Liz kept staring at the clock on the wall, making Maria’s anxiousness go sky high. Maria wanted to pull up a chair, stand on it, grab the damned thing, and smash it into the carpeted floor if only to make sure Liz would just stop looking at it. Oh, and the wristwatch would have to go as well. Ray seemed to sense Maria’s despair –maybe be actually sharing it- because he smiled at her with a small, sympathetic gesture of his mouth, returning his gaze to the small brunette. Liz’s eyes finally left the clock and focused on Ray’s.

“It’s midday, can we go now?” Liz asked half pleading, half demanding. Ray just arched his eyebrows, mildly amused at Liz’s boldness. She hadn’t exactly been snapping at Ray all morning –which Maria would had sworn was going to happen when they had arrived earlier- but hadn’t exactly been paying attention either. She had been, well, absent.

“You are free to go,” Ray said with mock seriousness, almost as if he were a teacher dismissing his class. Liz didn’t need to hear it twice, and immediately headed for the showers. For one instant there, Maria had thought Liz would just simply go straight out of the Gym area and into the Cafeteria, where they had all agreed to meet. Of course, if Max and the others weren’t there –well, if Max wasn’t there- Liz probably would just pass by the Cafeteria and head directly to a Lab labeled 2 – 00 – 22, two blocks far away and two floors below this one. God knew the girl had clearance for it. But Liz knew, just like Maria knew, that they both needed a shower.

“I hope you had had a good time…” Ray tentatively said, reaching for Maria’s towel and handing it over.

“I’m sure tomorrow will be better…” Maria said with a sigh, starting to move towards the showers. Then, thinking better of it, she turned around and faced Ray. “I mean, you do realize that… we’re just… it wasn’t… I mean…” closing her eyes in desperation for her loss of words, Maria finally managed to say, “We’ll get better at this thing.” Ray just nodded in understanding, so Maria turned again and walked to the showers.

They could have had a good time if it weren’t for the circumstances, Maria thought. And she hoped too that Ray knew that. Sure, since they had arrived Maria hadn’t thought of the older man as anything but their jailer, potential spy, and perpetual stalker, but things had gone pretty smoothly the whole morning. Of course, that didn’t mean that Maria was now thinking about Ray without the latter adjectives, but at least there were some things written on the “good” side of the list. Like patience.

Liz and Maria had been the first ones to arrive at their designated places, watching as everybody continued walking to the Cafeteria where three of them would go north and the remaining Kyle would go west. The schedule hadn’t said how long they would have to be there, because the afternoon schedules all started at 3:00 p.m. Which meant that somewhere between the morning ‘appointments’ and the afternoon ones they were supposed to lunch. Or at least that’s what they hoped. But that also meant that some of them could go earlier than others. So that had been when they had decided to wait at the Cafeteria.

As strange as it was, Maria had been the one remaining logical and over-all right with the circumstances when Liz had pretty much hugged herself while watching Max go, almost as if her husband was going to war and not coming back for months, maybe years. She had hugged Liz then with one arm, trying to comfort her while turning them both into the Gym.

“Come on, Lizzie. You know they have to treat them right.” Maria had said, trying to knock some sense into her in a nice way.

“How can you know?” Liz had answered back in a whisper.

“Because this is business,” Maria had said matter of factly. “They respect their part of the deal, we respect our part of the deal, and both parties are happy. Besides, do you seriously believe they would screw with us on the first day?”

“That doesn’t make me feel better,” Liz had said, looking her friend in the eyes. Still, she had loosened up a little, even if she was chewing on her lower lip.

Ray had met with them then. He had showed them around the whole Gym complex, saying something about it was a pity that Kyle wasn’t there because they would have to do this again the next day. Judging by Liz’s complete lack of attention, Maria had judged that it was probably going to be a good thing too. The Gym was a very large space, with probably more than 100 machines, though she doubted that they were all in use at the same time. Around fifteen people were in the place besides them.

There was a schedule on one of the walls where various different types of classes were appointed. Both girls had stared at it, hardly believing that at some point that day there were going to be classes from dancing to self protection to yoga. Ray had stopped to look at the schedule, trying to decipher what was different on it, until he had noticed that it was the first time the girls were seeing it.

“You bring in aerobics teachers?” Maria had asked in disbelief, wondering what kind of deal an aerobic teacher could make. Ray had laughed hard at that one.

“They are not exclusively aerobics teachers,” he had said, still chuckling, “they have other assignments, of course, but they volunteer to have these programs. The salsa classes are very popular within our single’s circle under thirty on Friday nights.”

Both girls had still seemed unconvinced. Who would volunteer to give classes? And that aside, who would take salsa classes 100 feet below the surface?

“It helps with the neighbors’ relationships thing and to take the stress of work out. Especially since, as you know, you can’t go outside. You have to find ways of occupying your time outside your lab and your apartment. Some people teach classes, some take them. Nothing formal, no fee at the end of the month… You can participate too, you know? If anything interests you, come around the time of the class and ask around. You’ll get to meet a lot of people that way too.

Well, the dance classes were pretty much out of the question since Michael had already been pronounced ‘unteachable’, but there might be some other things of interest… especially after they had settled down and started to get a hold of the daily stuff. Sure enough, sooner or later, they were going to get bored of staying at ‘home’, being paranoid all the time. It might even prove itself as a good way of getting information as well…

After that, Ray had started to talk about the routines they could go on. Starting easy, as he had said, at which Maria had looked at him skeptically. In her book gym equaled to pain, getting up early, more pain, sweat, still even more pain, discipline and, oh yeah, pain all over your body not only for the entire day, but for the entire week. She had tried it twice about four years back, as in a let’s-meet-guys kind of thing, uh-uh. She was the healthy type, just not that healthy. She had practically had to drag herself out of bed that morning, a prospect that didn’t light her days in the future, either. Liz, of course, had been totally out of it, not giving a damn about what Ray was talking about. She was way too focused on trying to decipher what was happening to Max and the others to care what was happening on this side of her connection.

Maria and Ray had sighed in unison. Both out of resignation, she guessed, but they both had smiled at each other in a conspiratorial kind of way.

“Or we can go sky diving if you want. What do you think Liz?” Ray had said mischievously.

“Yeah, fine. If Maria wants to go sky diving—” Liz re-focused her eyes onto Ray’s face. “What?” She asked, thinking she had obviously missed something. Ray just smiled, a little bit embarrassed.

“You can call Jake’s Lab if you want,” he offered, gesturing with his head to a phone on a desk in the entry that no one was using. Liz’s eyes glistened for a second, and then, as fast as it had happened, she lost the brilliance. “No… I’ll just… I’ll just wait…” Liz truly had looked appalled, and Maria’s heart went out to her. “Did you say something about warming up?” Liz had said back, no trace of humor in her voice.

So they had started to warm up before doing any exercise, something that reminded Maria how much “out of shape” she really was. God, if this is hurting now and it’s just warming up, Maria had thought back then, I really don’t want to know what I am going to feel tonight… And okay, they had started, that didn’t mean they had finished though.

While Ray had gone to say hi to some guys, Liz had suddenly sat down on a cube out of the floor. Those were everywhere, and both girls had guessed they were for you to sit down. Liz had placed her face between her hands, seriously freaking Maria out.

“Is something wrong?” Maria had asked against her latest affirmation that things couldn’t go wrong at all.

“I don’t know. Or Max is really good at blocking me out today… or… or…”

“Or maybe he’s just fine and he’s letting you know exactly that.” Maria had finished, Ray just two steps behind her, worry in his face.

“Is everything okay?”

Liz had barely nodded, and had remained pretty quiet for the next hour. Ray had glanced at Maria with worried looks, which Maria had kept dismissing. Looking back at this day, Maria was thinking as she had finally reached the showers, she was tremendously glad Michael could effectively block her. He had been doing so all day long –hell, all night long too- and Maria was just… resigned to the fact. She couldn’t get angry with him, and she certainly couldn’t make him open up to her, so, what was there to do?

But Liz had been so focused on picking up something wrong, anything at all, that she had pretty much gone to limbo leaving her behind. It had sucked big time, but part of her understood Liz. If Maria had been able to feel Michael, she would probably have done the same thing. And she had to admit that part of her was relieved that Liz wasn’t picking up anything out of the ordinary. It reassured her that her theory about how to do business was right.

She could understand why the pod squad was terrified of going to the lab to some degree, and why the six of them were at the edge of paranoia at all times, but it was just so obvious to her that things couldn’t go astray right now. Maybe it was a female instinct or something, she didn’t know, but she was certain that if things would actually go wrong, they wouldn’t be going wrong for everyone to see in plain light. Uh-uh, if Dave wanted something from them, he was the kind of man who would get it in a very subtle way, not letting anyone know till it was too late. If he wanted Michael to blow up a military base, he would probably not tell Michael it was a military base to begin with, and conceal the whole thing as training. That was how Maria envisioned it. Dave would certainly lie to them, anyone would lie to them, manipulate them, whatever, but no one would come up front and threaten them. Fear was very effective, but it also required a greater degree of control over them. And besides, there were better ways to get them to do whatever Dave wanted. Maria knew it, and she guessed they all did, but still the fear was there. Maybe tomorrow things would be better, as she had told Ray a couple of minutes before, because by then they would have had their first experience with this day.

Entering the shower room, Maria saw Liz splashing some water on her face in front of a mirror. She looked tired, not that Maria felt any more energetic.

“Sensing anything at all?”

“Nothing out of the ordinary,” Liz said watching Maria in the mirror’s reflection. “After 7:30 everything has been pretty… smooth. At times there I could actually think he was having a good time…” Liz said turning around. By the way she had said it, Maria would have sworn Liz had meant the total opposite to “good time”.

“So, why the long face? He’s fine, you are fine, hopefully Space Boy’s fine too. We are going to lunch and get to know what happened to all of us on this absurdly long Monday, okay?”

Liz actually managed a small smile at her friend. “You are right, I’m acting stupidly…”

“Nah, you are just worried. I bet Max was checking in on you the whole time. Wondering if we were being taken hostages or something…”

Liz nodded with a little bit of enthusiasm this time, looking forward to meeting with Max of course. “We really need a shower,” Liz pointed out, wrinkling her nose, so both girls went into a hot, refreshing bath. Each shower was individual and private, and each one had its own soap and shampoo too. For a whole minute, Maria made herself believe she was having a vacation in some fancy hotel in the Bahamas. Great Gym, great shower, and great buffet in about ten minutes. Yep, in her book, that was what vacations were all about. Well, the gym might be a little bit of a stretch.

Her best friend in the world was already out and dressing herself by the time Maria went back to reality. Well, at least reality did come with gym, shower and buffet, she reflected. One of the many commodities the place had was that there were pants and sweaters to put on. Ray had said that sometimes people came straight from work without their gym clothes, so they could use these and return them later on. These clothes were also in five different colors: Yellow, red, black, purple and the ever present blue. Since there wasn’t white, the girls assumed it wasn’t the same color code that the cards hanging from their necks had. When Maria had first seen them she had almost expected that the sweaters said “Dave’s property” or just “Dave” alone both on the front and the back. But there was nothing written on them. Not even the Speedo logo.

By the corner of her eyes, Maria caught Liz staring at her hand, stretching it and slowly making it into a fist. What was Liz doing?

“What’s wrong?” She asked, wondering for an instant if Liz was actually sensing something not right… or even worse: Was Liz starting to spark again?!

“We did hit those things pretty hard, didn’t we?” Liz asked with an amused tone, almost laughing, without taking her eyes off her hand, effectively dismissing Maria’s fears.

“I know what you girls need,” Ray had said around 9:00 a.m. when Liz had looked at the wall clock like a million times already, barely jogging on the running machine. Maria was running right beside her, somehow feeling less stressed out now that she was actually exercising. Maybe it wasn’t a myth that running took all your worries away. Both girls had stopped, expecting Ray’s “great” idea of what they needed.

“Well, I’m not sure if it will work for you, but when I’m anxious, I hit the sacks” Ray had said, trying to sound reassuring.

“Hey, get me Michael and I’ll hit him all right,” Maria had joked back, desperately trying to lighten up Liz’s mood. Liz had looked unconvinced, indeed, but she had only shrugged in an indifferent way. Ray had gone for the boxing gloves and forty minutes later, he had been proven to be right. Liz had started first, slowly, but since Ray had kept encouraging her, she had taken strength with every hit. By the time the not so fragile brunette had stopped, both of Ray’s eyebrows were arched.

“A little anger management?” he had commented at the way Liz had hit that hanging sand sack, whatever it was called, sweat running down Liz’s face.

“At what time can we go?” she had asked, totally ignoring Ray’s comment, passing a hand-in-a-boxing glove over her front, trying to take some hair strands off her face.

“Midday sounds like a good hour,” Maria had said before Ray opened his mouth. If they were meeting to lunch, Maria didn’t want to be in the Cafeteria since 10:00 a.m., especially with Liz in the mood that she was right now.

“Fine,” Liz had said, in an indistinct tone, turning around, going to take some water.

“You wanna try?” Ray had asked Maria then, his eyes not quiet concealing how astonished he was at Liz’s display of energy. Or had it been fury?

So Maria had started, joking about Michael being a much better punching bag than this one, until Ray had cut her off.

“Is she really feeling him?” He had asked above a whisper, while Liz took her gloves off and went for a towel. It had been Maria’s turn to arch her eyebrows.

“What, you don’t know?” she had skeptically asked him. Ray had shaken his head, curiosity evidently winning some inner battle about not wanting to intrude.

“Sure she can. And Max can feel her back. Well, not like she knows what he’s thinking or anything like that,” Maria had explained in more detail when she had seen Ray’s eyes widen. “I thought you knew all there is to know about us.”

“Dave and Jake probably do. I just knew everything there was to know in order to trap you.”

“Oh, that’s nice,” Maria had said, punching the sack hard. Now she was getting to know why Liz had so fiercely attacked the poor innocent thing. It felt good to punch something pretending it was something else… or someone else. Suddenly her punching had begun gaining strength as well, as everything that had happened to her in the last year had started to come back.

“We did hit that thing hard,” Maria agreed with Liz, now both leaving the shower room, feeling fresh, if not exactly renewed. Her shoulders and arms hurt a lot, and her legs weren’t that far from aching either. “With a little luck, we’ll be able to find a pharmacy around here and have some analgesics before we collapse…”

Liz passed her right hand over her left shoulder, wincing a little. “You know Maria, that’s the best thing I’ve heard all day long.”

TBC…

Post by **Island Breeze** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 4:35 pm

That was very interesting! I can see Dave as a puzzle-loving type. It fits him. And I enjoyed Kyle's interview with Dave.

“You know, you kids are a puzzle as well. That’s why I’m so intrigued with you.” Kyle kept silent, his hands in his pockets for all Dave could tell, clearly uncertain of what to do or say. “But you know, there are some things that intrigue me more than others, and that’s where I hope to find answers. Like, you know, why are you traveling with them?” Dave fitted a third piece into his other two, but leveled his eyes just in time to catch Kyle’s reaction.

Kyle was surprised. If Dave had been able to read minds, he would have read something along the lines why the hell didn’t we think about that? and would have proceeded to see a cascade of events, starting with a bullet wound and a glowing hand, culminating with a green spark in front of an elevator. But of course, Dave was only human, and an unchanged one, for that matter, so all he could see was Kyle lowering his eyes to no point in particular of the black wood desk, clearly trying to figure out how best to answer this.

The question was legitimate. Dave had some ideas and theories as to why Kyle Valenti was riding with the other five teenagers who had “legitimate” reasons to be on the road. That was why he had picked Kyle to be the first, too. Whatever the reason, Kyle was the biggest outsider of this group, so Kyle would give him the bases to seek what he needed to know from each one of them. In this puzzle, Kyle was the outer limit, the frame that was supposed to be always put together first. Oh yeah, Dave just plain loved puzzles.

I liked the part about them protecting each other, too, and Michael being someone you just knew would get you back if you did something to him or to any of the others.

“You never messed with them? Or one of your friends?”

“I was never the mean kind of kid… but sure there were others. Except that… Max and Michael were pretty much untouchable. Michael for the obvious reasons. You picked a fight with him, you were sure going to suffer something back, and it wasn’t going to be nice. You could see it in his eyes. And well, they were always together, so picking on Max meant picking on Michael as well… but still… even if Max had been alone, he had this, I don’t know, this presence I guess. Kids sense that, you know? I bet if Max had gotten into trouble he would have been perfectly able to fight back.” Kyle ended up, shrugging.

It was hard to picture a little Max fighting back, though he had no problem envisioning a little Michael in the same act. The fact that Max’s fight record was zero and Michael’s was high on the scale did help a lot in that insight.

“And Isabel was the ‘Ice Princess’,” Dave pressed, not wanting Kyle to stop recalling the oh so important past.

“I don’t know who came up with the term, but she had earned it by freshman year, I assure you. The way she looked at you when she didn’t approve of what you were doing… that was cold… But what was glacial was if anyone, and I mean anyone picked on either Max or Michael, as I have already told you. The three of them are so protective of themselves. They have always stuck with each other no matter what…”

Great part!

Misha · Post by **Misha** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 9:10 pm

Thanks for coming back!

Island Breeze, Thanks for the feedback! When I was figuring out what Dave would be doing, I just couldn't picture him sitting still while listening to the others :P And *I* love puzzles sooo.... as you said, it was fitting

XI
Exchanging Notes

Jake looked at his watch as the door was closing itself behind Michael’s back. It was 12:14 p.m. and he had a call to make. Dave answered six seconds later.

“You alone?” Jake asked, opening his Apple ibook, placing the cell phone between his jaw and his right shoulder, waiting for the thing to start up.

“Sure, Kyle’s just left. How did it go?” Dave asked, genuine curiosity in his voice, even expectation.

“Their schedule, change it. Give them the afternoon free.” Jake said, his fingers eager to start typing the first words of his report.

“They have a schedule for a reason, Jake. You know that.” Dave sounded a little bit irritated in the other side of the conversation.

“So what? What are you? A Virgo who can’t live without following a schedule at all times? They need to get rid of this stress. Re-arrange the appointments. I don’t care how, but give them this time free.” Jake said frowning, the OS Mac system finally kicking in. He loved Dave like a little brother, but he would never put the welfare of his patients –even if the three people who had left weren’t exactly his patients in the whole sense of the word- before anything or anyone else. Later they would discuss how it had gone, but right now, he needed to be sure the kids were going to have enough space.

“I’ll tell you what,” Dave said after a short pause, clearly considering his options. “I’ll tell them to go shopping this afternoon instead of doing so on Thursday.”

“Somehow,” Jake said smiling, “I doubt the boys will see that as a stress-escape, but okay. That might do it.”

* * *

To say that Max and Liz hugged as if they hadn’t seen each other for a month when they finally saw each other would be an understatement. To say that each other felt as if life were returning to their respective bodies would be almost accurate. But to say that the “dark haired couple” separated just seconds before something exploded would be closer to the truth.

Max let go of Liz’s embrace when he felt the air… charging around them. It was such a curious feeling, one that he wouldn’t have minded at all if they had been alone, or just with their group. But the Cafeteria was hardly the place where he wanted to explore new feelings that could potentially lead to the destruction of public property, especially with the state of mind they both had. Liz must have sensed something too because she looked at him a little bit blushed.

Looking into her beautiful eyes, oblivious to everything and everyone around them, Max felt a twinge of guilt. She had been so worried for him, and he hadn’t been exactly… in danger… No matter what he had tried to feel all day long, what he had tried to send, Liz had been worried, really worried. And okay, he had to admit to himself that it was in part Liz’s fault, because she was too focused on feeling something wrong, but still… He wished there was a way they could actually talk in this connection, so they could say with words what their feelings so obviously failed to communicate. Max frowned to himself. There was something odd about that last thought…

His guilt also had to do with the fact that he had had a good time that morning, and all that time he was feeling Liz’s fear for his welfare. At some point he had been so seriously worried about her that he had asked Michael what he was getting from Maria. Michael had looked at him without understanding why was Max asking that. After all, Max was the expert, not him.

“I’m just getting Liz’s anxiousness and I’m starting to wonder if it is just because of me or if something else is going on.”

Michael had thought about it for a second, and shrugging, he had said, “Maria’s fine as far as I can tell, and you know them: They wouldn’t be fine if they weren’t with each other.” And as an after thought, Michael had added, “right?”

“Right… I mean, Liz is anxious, not panicking… She’s just… worried… for what is happening in here, not with her…”

So Max had let it go, though around 10:00 a.m. a growing anger had started to be felt through their connection. He had stopped doing what he was doing then and had really concentrated on feeling Liz. Somehow that anger had felt right, as if she somewhat was pouring it out of her, getting rid of it. He hadn’t understood it then, and he was certainly going to ask about it now, but at least in that moment Max convinced himself that if something was wrong with Liz, he would know it beyond any doubt. And certainly, Michael would feel Maria if something was wrong too.

Speaking of them, Michael and Maria were now heading to a table by the corner of the place, where Kyle was already seated. His wife and his almost sister-in-law had met with them right outside the entrance, and it wasn’t till now that they were seeing Kyle. Good. Everyone would get to know what everyone else had done at the same time.

When they started walking to the table, Max put his arm around Liz’s shoulder to reassure him that they both were okay, and almost imperceptibly he felt Liz wince.

“You are hurt?” he asked, fear both in his eyes and voice, stopping dead in his tracks, turning to see right into his soul-mate’s eyes. Why hadn’t he known it before?

“Sore,” Liz said shrugging, clearly not giving it importance, smiling as if telling him that he shouldn’t give it importance either. “You know, I have spent five hours in a gym…”

Max felt how he started to breathe again. Liz hugged him back, almost in a gesture of reassuring him that she was, indeed, okay, and was equally happy to see him unharmed as well.

“And speaking of gyms,” Maria said to him as they were all sitting, “maybe you can work a little of your magic and make us feel better…” Maria’s words trailed off, a glimmer of hope in her eyes, until Liz spoke: “No, Maria. If we cheat on this, it is going to hurt as bad tomorrow. We have to build resistance, that’s all.” Maria just pouted at her, making Max smile to himself. He knew that if he smiled openly at Maria, the pout would be directed at him, and he didn’t want Maria pissed off at him, no matter how little the transgression.

“So I take it the Gym was okay?” Kyle asked, his fingers seemingly having lost the ability to remain still, tearing apart a napkin into little pieces. Max wondered why Kyle was so anxious. Sure they all wanted to hear Kyle’s story, -everyone’s story- and would get to it soon, but there was something… out of character there. What had happened to Kyle that morning?

“If Liz can recall fifteen minutes in a row of what we did, I’ll be impressed,” Maria said, her eyes diverting to the center of the cafeteria, where food was waiting for them.

“What do you mean?” Max asked, succeeding in sounding casual even if the subject was Liz. The fact that he knew Maria was joking did help a ton, but he also knew that there was truth in the blonde’s words. It was the kind of comment Maria made when she wanted someone to hit a specific topic of conversation.

“I was just distracted,” Liz defended herself, this time the pout coming from her. “I know you said you didn’t want me to worry and all,” Liz started, this time looking at him. She looked exactly like that flash he had gotten three years ago, where a much younger Liz was pleading with her mom to stay up one more hour so she could see some documentary on the History Channel. She was arguing her case then, just like she was now. “But I just couldn’t stop wondering… Did everything go as okay as you made me feel through our connection?”

Liz’s voice hardly trembled, but it didn’t matter. Max already knew Liz was scared that his answer would be “no”. At the same time, the three humans at the table turned questioning eyes to the three not so humans with them. It was obvious that the former had all been nervous and worried about the latter and, to their surprise, that also made the pod squad blush. Max looked at Isabel and then at Michael, not exactly sure of how to say this without it sounding… inadequate.

Finally, Michael spoke: “We were playing some stupid computer car game…” Michael’s voice sounded annoyed, as it always did when Michael didn’t want to admit something –Max had way too many hours with Michael to not know that. Silence reigned at the table for about five seconds.

“You were WHAT?!” Maria exploded, clearly not believing Michael’s words, and even more clearly daring him to say he was actually telling the truth.

“What are you guys talking about?” Kyle asked, just as lost as Liz looked. Gosh, there was no easy way of saying this… and it was just ridiculous, Max thought for a nanosecond there.

“We raced each other on this computer game…” Max started, and when he saw Maria’s face staring at him with hurt eyes, and Liz’s unbelieving ones, he rushed in, “it was all Jake’s idea, I swear!”

Even if Liz wasn’t saying a word, Max could almost sense in the mix that were her feelings something along the lines of I worried sick for you and you were WHAT?! PLAYING?! It was almost comical, really, and he bet some day they would all laugh about it… but somehow all he could feel now was a mix of shame and guilt…

“He said we looked like we were going to faint, and we certainly felt like that,” Isabel interceded for Max’s and Michael’s sakes, since both Maria and Liz were speechless, though it was clear it wasn’t exactly because they were thrilled, “and that we needed to relax.”

Liz’s feelings dissolved as logic was intruding her mind. Her eyes lost that outraged look, and stared at him almost as if she were weighing something. Max didn’t know what it was, but he surely hoped it was something good.

“That’s why you stopped being so nervous and anxious,” Liz finally managed to address to him, her emotions now receding to something he guessed was resignation and calmness. “Was there any point to it? I mean, besides relaxing you.”

“I actually asked him that,” Max said with half a smile, feeling horrible for knowing she had had a terrible morning picturing him at some mad doctor’s lab. God knew the three of them had exactly thought that when they had entered the real Lab that morning.

“You want us to run cars on a computer game?” Isabel had asked after they had entered the first division of the Lab, a sort of huge living room, with one big screen at one end and a semi-circle couch at the other one. The walls were bare, rough, painted in dark green colors, giving it the impression of being a very important and formal place. Jake had gone to one of the many drawers that were below the screen, and had taken out four wireless, very advanced looking joysticks. That had been when they had started wondering what kind of running Jake was talking about. When the screen had come alive a minute later, and he had accessed the game menu, Isabel had asked that first question.

“Sure,” Jake had answered, “It’s a new version of something the Network Keepers are testing down in level 5, and Jeremy lent it to me. Though I didn’t know it will be this handy.” Jake ended handing them the controls, the three of them rooted to their place, not believing it. Where was the catch?

“Is there any point to this?” Max slowly asked, not sure of how exactly asked the fact that they didn’t understand why did he wanted them playing, and much less liking the fact that Jake was taking this as a game. Jake had smiled, his eyes glued to the screen as he was presetting the options.

“There’s always a point to everything in this place, and as far as I can tell, I’ll always make sure there’s a point for you and me both. So, right now you need to trust this environment, and to trust this is safe, or otherwise, you are going to burn it down the moment you see me with a needle.” The three of them had tensed –even more- at that statement. “See what I mean?” Jake had said arching one eyebrow at them. “That’s what you need, to distract yourselves. Now, what I need is to… preset you.”

The three of them had stared at him, still trying to get a hold on themselves and their nerves, not really understanding what the hell was the man in front of them talking about with preset them. But Jake had sat down, with his left hand signaling them to come, and with the right one finishing all the options for the four players.

“This place,” Jake had said while they were taking seats together, as far away as physically possible from him, “has sensors all over it. So I’m collecting data from all of you and myself right now. Just your basic vital information.” Max had looked up at the green ceiling then, wondering how fast his heart was beating at that moment. “Now, what I meant with preset you was that I need to know what is happening to you in any normal circumstance. Kind of having a basic measure. I know how a human body reacts to normal stimuli, so I need to know how similar your reactions to ours are.” Jake had then turned to look at them with a genuine smile, almost a reassuring one. He was really enjoying the moment. “Pick up your cars.”

“That’s interesting,” Liz said after Max had finished the explanation. “I wouldn’t have thought of that,” she added thoughtfully. “Does that mean all week long you are going to play that game? Maybe longer?”

“Hell no,” Michael said, outraged, “I’ll fry that thing first.” Max almost chuckled at Michael’s outburst. Out of the three of them, Michael was the one with far more hours on playing games than the five of them put together. But then again…

“You are just mad because I beat the crap out of you two,” Isabel said with a bright smile at Michael’s annoyance, standing up to go to the buffet, though Max was suspecting she was more likely escaping Michael’s scowl. Though his best friend had started “beating the crap out of them” –Jake included- Isabel had progressively managed the little tricks of the game.

Jake’s car game had worked in taking their minds out off where they were, Max had to admit that, as they all followed Isabel’s example of getting some lunch. By 9:00 a.m. they had only played half the roads options and a quarter of the cars, and a real competition was going on between the four contestants. Because older or not, Jake was a really good player as well, usually going “nose to nose” with Michael. And Max, well, he wasn’t the play station kind of guy. Sure he had won his share of races, but he had had no illusions about being the “champ” of the day.

“I’m glad everything went okay,” Liz said in a more happy tone, apparently deciding that playing was way better than all the things she had been thinking. Max was glad too, but he knew that sooner or later the car games were not going to be the only things they were going to do. He just didn’t know what to expect now… and he didn’t like his imagination wandering around those corners either…

“I hate Mondays,” a guy right next to him said, a very popular quote –and feeling- stamped on mugs all over the country, Max reflected as he curiously looked at the at least 8 inches taller, blond haired, heavily German-accented man. “They can never serve apple pie on Mondays…”

Max’s attention diverted to the tables, which had a considerably smaller variety of food, -and a less elaborated variety too- and genuinely curious, asked out loud, “Wasn’t there more food on Saturday?”

The man looked down at him, Max feeling a very unfamiliar sense of being short –even if Michael was taller than himself, he wasn’t that tall- and smiling said: “You are new.”

It wasn’t a question, it was a statement. “Is that so obvious?” Max said, unconsciously raising a hand to his right earlobe, noticing that a green card hung from the stranger’s neck.

The man lowered his eyes to the table and continued serving himself. “Weekends are special I guess, that’s why the special food is served. Kind of reminds us that days do have a meaning down here after all…” he said shrugging. Finishing his task of filling his plate, he turned his head. “Welcome to the Compound.” He then turned around and walked to a far off table, where someone else was clearly waiting for him.

“Wow, that man was tall,” Liz said, standing right beside him, both staring at the –apparently- German stranger as he walked off. Slightly nodding, Max turned to look at Liz. “Well, at least we know the food on Saturday wasn’t a show.” For one second there, that had been exactly what he had thought. He couldn’t help himself, he couldn’t shake the feeling that somehow everything was calculated for them to feel safe when they shouldn’t feel like that.

That was a feeling that was getting old. He was so unsure of how to feel about everything in this place, and he also knew the others felt the same way as well. Was it okay to finally let the guard down? Or was there never going to be a day where they could actually relax? It was no longer a matter of doubting if they had taken the right decision on accepting the offer, it was about how to handle life now that they were here.

Ten minutes later, they were all back at their table. And sure, Max was hungry, but since Jake had offered them submarine sandwiches around 10:00 a.m. -right when he had felt Liz’s anger, by the way- it had diminished the pod squad’s need for food. But Liz and Maria were a completely different story. It was apparent enough that Ray hadn’t offered anything solid at all, and he knew that Liz had skipped breakfast that morning, just as he had.

So, as his wife and her best friend were eating with passion –politely, discreetly and not at all gross, but certainly with passion- he, Michael and Isabel resumed explaining the highlights of their day.

“What do you mean you are going to work alone?” Maria asked right before taking a long drink from her orange juice. “What about Samantha and William?”

“He told us that most of the time it was going to be just us,” Max said as he was passing the Tabasco sauce to his sister, “but that some… measurements, I think he called them, were needed from other experts. That’s when we are going to work with other people.”

“What kind of expert is Jake? Is he some kind of doctor?” Liz asked, going for her second hamburger.

“He wasn’t clear,” Isabel said, frowning. Max had wondered too, but there hadn’t been a right time to ask that. Jake hadn’t asked much of them either. Not about their powers, at least, which had been their major concern. After all, they had agreed on omitting some, passing one or two to Tess, and last but not least, to “lesser” their powers as well. It wasn’t that Jake wasn’t interested, but Jake had been explaining how their relationship could work. Max had frowned with intrigue at that expression: could instead of should, as if he were open to suggestions. Jake had struck him as a very care free person, and yet there was always control behind it. Jake knew what he was doing, but he also had several alternatives to get done whatever he wanted. Max wondered if Dave was like that, because even if he hadn’t perceived carefree-ness from him, he had sensed that control that emanated from knowing one’s plan is… flexible.

“But he is a doctor, right?” This time Kyle was the one asking. Of all six of them, he was the only one who hadn’t gone for a complete ration, just a salad and two desserts.

“He kept talking about metabolisms and biochemistry…” Max said thoughtfully, “but he was always talking about it in order for us to understand what he wanted.”

Jake had been clear about one thing: He was not only going to try for the exercises to have a point for both of them, but that they should understand what was being done.

“That means, kids, that school is not over. In order to understand a whole bunch of these things you are going to have to learn a little bit about metabolism and biochemistry. As we start working, I’ll give you the readings. And I do expect you to read them.” He had said as he was crossing the goal, gaining a new record.

“He doesn’t want us in the dark,” Max concluded, somehow the phrase making him feel… comfortable.

Michael hadn’t said much about the whole situation, and Max knew that it had nothing to do with the fact that Isabel had kicked his butt on the car game. But he just couldn’t figure out what was motivating Michael’s silence. He sensed it was related to the fact that things had gone… weird, and that somehow Michael was perceiving danger in there. Max knew he himself shouldn’t be this comfortable now, and that the car game was only a diversion from what was happening. After all, they were being measured: Their breathing, heart beat, temperature and God knew what else being analyzed while they were playing.

That was the deal. Whether they were comfortable or not, playing or not, the fact was that they had agreed to be studied in exchange for safety, and a chance to lead normal life. Well, Liz and Maria had gone to a gym, and they were now eating peacefully, without thinking the Special Unit was going to land on them any second; every single stranger a potential agent; moving down the road without end.

Maybe Michael was thinking that. None of them were thrilled about going to the lab, but things could have gone a hell of a lot differently. They were lucky, Max guessed, that this Jake was so willing to share with them, to make them understand. But then again, it could all be an act. This had been only the first day, how long for them to be certain this was the way things would be? Yep, that sounded like Michael.

“What about you, Kyle? How did it go with Dave?” Isabel asked. Now that they had told their day, and both Maria and Liz had said nothing interesting had happened in theirs –aside from the schedule with the lessons being taught at the Gym- they wanted to hear Kyle’s story. It had been practical to leave Kyle for the last since he had been there alone. Max, Michael and Isabel had to share their views on all things, and three heads telling a story is a lot longer than just one.

“I think he’s the genuine,” Kyle stated, slicing a little piece out of his strawberry jello. “You know that thing Jake did with the cars? Dave had his own version of distraction: He’s putting a puzzle together. And I mean a huge puzzle. It was freaking maddening to see him just placing piece after piece while you are talking, but then I started putting pieces together, and it just felt… comfortable. I guess that was his diversion for me.”

“A puzzle?” Michael asked, narrowing his eyes, his face reflecting his suspiciousness about it. Sure, it was odd, Max thought, but he didn’t see anything to be suspicious about in a puzzle…

“He said it is about a desert storm too,” Kyle pointed out, and lifting his eyes to look at them, he added: “He said he had already memorized the picture. And he also said the room where we were talking didn’t have any kind of recording device.”

Jake had said the same about the first room where they had been, his office, Max guessed. Whatever you say or do in here, the alleged doctor had stated, will stay between you, me, and these walls. But just like Kyle had done at Dave’s comment about the room being unwatched, the three of them had looked back at Jake with the unspoken question of is that supposed to make us feel better?

After half an hour –right about the time when all in the table were at one or another stage of finishing their respective desserts- Kyle was getting to the end of what he had said, what he hadn’t said, and what he had just implied. And Max hoped Kyle had a good memory too, because if Dave could memorize a picture, he sure could memorize a conversation. No wonder there weren’t any recording devices in the room: His brain was the damned recording thing.

“When we finished talking about our childhood, he asked me what was I planning for my future now…” Kyle trailed off, as if unsure of how to proceed. The five of them stopped eating and looked straight at Kyle. They knew Dave was waiting for them to pick something to study, and they had thought Dave was going to give them a lot more time than two days –at least two in Kyle’s case, but certainly not more than a week for that matter.

“What did you say?” Liz asked, frowning, clearly thinking what everyone else was thinking at that table. Everyone else except for Kyle, of course. Didn’t they have more time?

“That I had no idea… Which was the truth, you know?” Kyle paused for a moment. “He told me then that I should consider something to do with mechanics, because I had done a great job with six of his cars.”

“What?” Five people asked at the same time. Kyle sighed.

“He told me that, although he hadn’t been in Roswell by himself, he had sent a lot of people for him. And that out of 14 cars they had submitted to Toby’s place, I had fixed six. He even described them for me, and hell, I can’t even remember a single one of those cars… What if I hadn’t made such a great work with them?” Kyle asked out loud, as if any of them had any answers for it. Max knew that Kyle prided himself on a job well done, but that he wasn’t always an… entire perfectionist with all the cars, hence Kyle’s worry.

Now that he was thinking about it, Max had known that Kyle had liked auto shop back in school, and that was one of the reasons he had gone to work at Toby’s Auto Shop to get some bills paid, but Max also knew that Kyle hadn’t been thrilled about working there about two months afterwards.

The curious part was that Kyle was a good mechanic. He had made the van last as long as three weeks, just enough time to take them from the Church where Max had married to the next town, the final town for the old van that Jesse had gotten God knew where. And he was really good with everything that involved putting pieces together.

Isabel had told Max once that Kyle wasn’t always all that great, and that sometimes he had asked for some hocus pocus from her. Max had smiled at that back then, but now he had a feeling of uneasiness growing inside him. Had Dave been somehow testing Kyle? Did Dave know something about Kyle? About Liz?

“Anyway,” Kyle continued, trying to stay on the subject, “he said I will take something related to mechanics, at least for a short time, whatever ‘short’ is in his book, and that then I could decide if I wanted to continue or not… How damned thoughtful of him, if you ask me…”

“So now he’s deciding for us?” Maria asked, outraged. Michael and Isabel looked a little bit lost. Liz was deep in thought, her thoughts racing as fast as the cars Max had been playing with that morning. Max himself didn’t know what to think about this.

“Well,” Kyle said in his usual resigned tone, “in his words, I can learn whatever else I want, but that I must include,” Kyle made a pause, as if recalling something, “a round on building three at least twice a week, because there’s where the physics with the engineers do their work. What the hell do I know about physics?” Kyle ended with a worried look.

“We are supposed to go to building three on Wednesday,” Liz said frowning, still working out things in her head. Max could practically feel her thinking. Right then, a high beep sounded around the table. Actually, it had been 6 beeps, all coming from their respective G.E.S.’s –thought it took them a minute to remember they had those with them- that had all sounded right at the same time. They had a message from Dave:

“Change of plans. Go shopping this afternoon, and please, get a GOOD look around. You’ll meet with Administration on Thursday. D.”

The six of them stared at the small monitors. Before anyone could say a thing, another beep went out.

“P.S.: Have FUN. J.”

“J?” Maria said, arching one eyebrow.

“Jake,” Max absently answered her, reaching for his pocket where a copy of the schedule was folded. They all had made a copy to carry around, so everyone could know where everyone else was. That was the exact number of lab, floor, building, etc, etc, etc, that they needed to know in order to reach out each other.

Liz was unfolding hers before him. “We were supposed to go today to Administration and shopping on Thursday …”

“What kind of game is he playing with us?” Michael said, not bothering with getting his schedule out. Liz lowered hers, and looking at Michael, something clicked in Liz’s mind. A feeling that Max loved, by the way.

“J. Max is right, that must have been Jake. If he was so worried about relaxing you this morning, he probably managed to change the schedule.” Liz said shrugging, thinking that it sounded logical. It sounded logical to him too. Except that—

“Since when does shopping mean relaxing?” Kyle protested, echoing Max’s thoughts.

“Since we can go and get everything for free,” Maria said smiling, an equally wide grin appearing on his sister’s face at Maria’s words.

“And where exactly is the fun in that?” Michael tried to argue, Maria and Isabel glaring at him. But the sentence was already given: They would go shopping that afternoon, if for nothing else but to follow the schedule.

* * *

Ray watched as Jake and Dave put piece after piece in the huge puzzle that was now occupying the most part of Dave’s desk. Since he was eating, he was not allowed to put a single finger over a single piece. It didn’t matter to him, he wasn’t all that much of a fan of puzzles to begin with. But the two people he respected the most in the world were apparently in heaven while doing this. It was amazing, really, to see how they would just take one random piece and put it around the place where later on it would fit.

Ray had heard the story a million times –an expression Jake used at all times- about how the doc had discovered Dave’s passion and had later on joined him in the never ending hobby of solving those things. Except that Jake never put together a puzzle if Dave wasn’t doing it. Jake had told him the fun was to make it with his friend. On the other hand, Dave had no problem in doing so by himself, though he didn’t mind at all when others helped him. Something that, in Ray’s experience, most puzzles lovers hated.

Ray’s eyes kept watching both men picking and placing pieces, while his thoughts raced through his mind. He had a question nagging at him, but he wasn’t sure of how to bring it up. In fact, he wasn’t even sure of what to think about the subject either.

“Why did you take so long?” Jake’s words brought Ray back to reality, though Jake’s question was directed to Dave. Ray and Jake had met halfway to Dave’s office about twenty minutes before, and it hadn’t been till around ten minutes ago that Dave had sent a message that was supposed to be sent some good two hours before, as far as Ray had understood it.

“Administration,” Dave said flipping pieces up. “Richard said he couldn’t change the schedule to Thursday for a million reasons. A million reasons that I had to correct in order for things to work for our beloved administrator. As you must remember, he is a Virgo. Changing his plans did crash his world…”

When Dave had announced that he was sending the kids on a shopping trip, Ray had told him to tell them to have a good look around, because so far, they had barely seen the place. Dave had just nodded, and had hit the send button just before Jake had said make sure to tell them to have a good time too. Dave had typed again, but Ray knew that because he had taken such a short time, he must have shortened the message as well.

After that, Ray had directed his attention to his empty stomach, while Jake took his place beside the table, starting to flip pieces again. Silence had descended over them, a companionable one, but still Ray’s mind was trying to find the right words. Why had Dave and Jake left him out on something concerning the kids?

“You should have seen them, Dave,” Jake said, breaking the silence, his eyes searching through the endless pieces for the one he was eager to place. “They looked just as bad as you did the first time I met you.”

Dave stopped his own search in midair, thinking, and then, raising his eyes, he told Jake: “But I was having an asthma attack when you first saw me… Did they really look that bad?” Dave was joking, Jake wasn’t. He too stopped searching, and looked at Dave straight in the eye.

“I’m telling you, if I had showed them a needle they would have fainted in front of me. What the hell did you tell those kids I was going to do to them?”

Jake was angry, in that very subtle way of his. He didn’t need to raise his voice, or point fingers or anything of that sort. It was all in his eyes, and his voice was just a slight tone higher and stronger than usual. Both Dave and Ray were surprised by Jake’s change of mood, if that was what it was.

“Nothing,” Dave said defensively, “I didn’t tell them a thing. I guessed you wanted to explain everything yourself.”

“Nothing?” this time Jake straightened himself up from where he was, placing his hands palms down, leaning against the table. “What are you, nuts? You left them with worries, phantoms and fears beyond our imagination for two days and you expected them to be okay?”

Dave frowned. Ray had stopped eating just a second before. Suddenly, his question didn’t seem all that important anymore…

“No,” Dave said, this time in an even, calm tone. It was really unusual for the two of them to argue, and the few times Ray had been a witness to it, it had never lasted long. “I told them they could choose whatever they wanted to do with you, but that you would explain it in detail.”

Dave’s calmness was enough to smooth the vibes around the room. Jake sighed briefly. “Well, they didn’t seem like they were thinking along those lines, trust me.”

“But you managed okay, right?” Dave asked, this time his tone eager, his eyes betraying the control he always imposed on himself every time his curiosity gained on him.

“I managed, right. Okay might be a little bit of a stretch,” Jake stated, his eyes slowly moving toward the pieces. “I knew we weren’t going to cover too much the first day, but the fact that they were so damned nervous… Michael was literally sparking in front of me…”

“What?!” Ray asked at the same time Dave did, both men looking at the older one. Jake didn’t bother looking up, and dismissing them with his left hand, he added: “It was just a tiny spark, don’t make a circus out of it.”

“Don’t make us think there’s a circus to be made out of it,” Ray said, his submarine completely forgotten in his right hand, his pulse slowly returning to normal. He trusted those kids, alright, but he wasn’t sure how much to trust them just yet.

“What did you do?” Dave asked. He, too, had forgotten what was in his right hand.

“Play cars. Remind me to thank Jeremy for the car game,” Jake said to Ray.

“You’ve got three half aliens willing for you to test them and you played cars?” Dave said with a tentative smile, not quite sure whether to laugh about it or to be worried about it.

“First of all, they are not exactly all that willing, Dave, they are more likely obliged. And secondly, what makes you believe I wasn’t testing them? You know the whole lab is wired to pick up their signs. That way we wouldn’t have to be walking through mazes of cables all around ourselves. I started to preset them.”

“Thanks for reminding me why you are my best friend in the world,” Dave said, his eyes returning to the puzzle. “So, who won?”

“Isabel kicked our collective butts pretty hard… but give Michael a little bit of practice…” Ray smiled at that. Women kicking men’s butts wasn’t a nice thought for any guy’s ego… especially with car games.

“Isabel has better reflexes than Max and Michael?” Ray asked, trying to sound as if he knew the science aspect about girls versus guys on video games.

“Usually, men have better reflexes, quicker responses than women do,” Jake said, pausing his search, reaching an equally scientific response to Ray’s question, “but Isabel was the calmest of the three. I bet that played a huge factor in the scores.”

“Calmer? Your car game didn’t calm all of them?” Dave asked, frowning at Jake.

“Michael stopped sparking, okay, but he was far from being calmed. He didn’t let himself lose in the game. And Max was distracted all the time. I don’t know why, he just was… like absent or something…”

“You mean you don’t know?” Ray asked astonished, looking straight at Jake, and then at Dave. Was Jake feigning ignorance? Dave leaned back over his chair, looking at him.

“What? You do?” Jake asked, completely taken aback by Ray’s sudden interruption of his record of events.

“Liz was absent as well, all day long. And she kept murmuring or telling Maria something about Max telling her that he was all right. Liz just wasn’t convinced.”

“You mean Max was actually talking to Liz? As in telepathy?” Jake asked, this time amazed, clearly thinking of the possibilities.

“No, not exactly… when I finally asked Maria, she said it was more like feeling each other. I thought you knew all that already…” Ray trailed off for a couple of seconds. “I thought you just hadn’t told me.” The accusation was there, Ray couldn’t deny he hadn’t liked being left in the dark, but if neither Jake or Dave knew—

“Did you know that empathic link was there?” Jake turned to look at Dave, who in turned looked pensive. Clearly Jake was also suspecting someone had left them both in the dark.

“They talked about it in the rooms, but I wasn’t sure how to interpret it then. I figured sooner or later you would know about it, Jake.” And then, turning to look at Ray, he added: “You know I would never keep information from you, Ray. These kids are too important to me to have anyone making mistakes around them. Anyway, this… link or whatever they have, was not relevant to trap them as now it’s not relevant to keep them here.”

“Don’t be so sure, Dave. Do not underestimate what they would do for each other, especially if they feel something is not right.” Ray seriously said. After all, he had been the one to follow them weekly when they were in high school, and as often as he could when they had been on the road. Ray knew first hand how tight they could be.

“I’m not planning on either Max or Liz feeling something’s wrong from each other, Ray.” Dave calmly said, “But I do understand your point.”

“All the same, you should have told me that,” Jake said, returning to the never ending piece hunt.

“You were on a bed courtesy of almond cookies, my friend. And as I said, it wasn’t relevant. I bet you’ll get to know all about that soon enough.” Dave said dismissively, something Jake didn’t like. Apparently, being mad at the thought of being left in the dark wasn’t exclusive to Ray.

“Anything else you would like to share, now that we are on it, and I’m not in a bed?” Jake answered, in that cynical way of his.

“Hm… did you know it only takes a sip for Max to get drunk?” Jake stopped placing his piece, slowly raising his head to Dave, his eyes practically racing from one point to the other. In ten seconds he would start theorizing about metabolisms and biochemistry, Ray knew, but before that, he chocked on his soda. Just a sip? That boy has problems…

* * *

“Next time, we are doing a list,” Liz said, finally putting her head over Max’s left shoulder, both now in bed, reflecting on the day’s events. Eleven bags in the living room were testimony to the busy afternoon the couple had had.

“Are you sure? You seemed to do fine without one…” Max said, his voice coming teasing, his left arm coming to rest over Liz’s own shoulders. “I mean, was there anything you didn’t bring?”

Liz felt herself blushing a little. She had been carried away by the fact of being shopping without needing money. Granted, Max’s diamond sales could have taken away the worry about spending money when they were on the road, but they had been careful with their economics all the same. They had to pay car rentals, gas, motels, food, clothes, etc, etc, etc, and it wasn’t as if they could just go off selling diamonds every week. It could leave a traceable path, and they weren’t taking risks.

Still, The Shop was a very huge place. She guessed it was like the twin brother of Wal Mart or something. Liz remembered Samantha telling them that The Shop was a place where one could order things by catalogue or internet, but Liz must have dozed into a micro-coma there, because she hadn’t recalled a thing about The Shop being a warehouse with your every day stuff. True, the catalogues and the internet service were there, but something as important as this place shouldn’t have passed so unaware for them.

Maria, Isabel and Liz had been in heaven, and the guys would have to admit that, even if not in heaven, it wasn’t that bad either. It had taken all afternoon long to be completely sure they had gone through all the corridors, and amazingly, there had been a lot of people in that place. Maria had said something about it being the beginning of the month –it was Monday, February 3rd, 2003- until Michael reminded her that it shouldn’t matter that it was the beginning of the month when you weren’t paid and you didn’t have to pay for anything either. Maria had glared at him.

But they had had to pay. In credits. They had had to pass their white cards as if they were credit cards, and the guy sitting at the register had smiled when he had noticed that the color was white. As far as Liz had seen, besides Ray, Dave and themselves, no one else was wearing colorless cards. But he had said nothing. For one moment Liz was sure they had exceeded their “credit” limit, but all had been fine. When Liz had asked for a total amount, the green eyed, bright smiled guy had frowned a little bit.

“You only use credits for the outside purchases. This is merely a way of registering what you have bought, so we’ll make sure to have it in stock for your next purchase.”

“Like a data base?” Liz had asked the slightly freckled, red haired clerk, the other five members of her group all listening carefully behind her.

“Yeah. If there are things you were looking for and didn’t find, please, say so to The Shop space on the Virtual Net.

And that was why they needed a list. To keep track of things they wanted and that weren’t there. Though Max, Michael and Isabel had looked at the –newly and neatly arranged- Tabasco sauce bottles as if they were some long lost friends, they weren’t their favorite brand. They didn’t care all that much, really, and Liz had vaguely thought that anything with that amount of spiciness should be enough for her husband’s almost-need of extremely condiment laden food.

Now that she was thinking about it, she was glad she had never had a problem with spicy food, because Max’s kisses were always having a slight tinge of pepper and salt, of a very condiment taste… well, a spicy essence, and there was nothing in the world better than that. Almost as if reading her mind, Max took her left hand with his right and brought her fingers to his lips.

They both were pretty much wiped out, but they needed this little time to themselves, before falling asleep. It wasn’t that they were exhausted because of walking for four and a half hours in a super-sized store, or the fact that she had hit a punching bag with such anger that her muscles were in actual pain right now if she moved them in some specific ways. No, they were mentally exhausted. They hadn’t really noticed that weariness till they had come back to their apartment around forty minutes before.

They weren’t having a headache, but they felt as if they had gone through a 700 question math quiz that morning. They were exhausted because of the concentration they had focused on each other all morning long. That combined with the fact of a very poor sleep time the night before, and the terrible hidden fears each knew the other was thinking could happen to either of them, hadn’t done wonders for their mental states right now.

Liz sighed in contentment as she felt her muscles relaxing beneath Max’s embracing arms and light kisses. There was no better place on Earth than the one she was right now: Hearing Max’s steady heart beat, rhythmically beating strong below her ear. She loved to hear Max falling asleep, his breathing coming even, his heart starting to beat slower, his muscles relaxing beneath her. She loved it because it meant that Max felt safe with her at his side. She loved it because it meant Max knew how much she loved him back. In those instants, their love became a tangible thing with a simple act like being embraced.

“Was this Jake a nice person, Max?” Liz asked when her husband placed her hand back over his upper chest.

“He seemed like one… Why?” Max’s voice came a little over a whisper, but since they were both alone in their room, she heard him perfectly. Max was falling asleep, making her feeling sleepy too. Or maybe it was the other way around: She was both mentally and physically tired, so she could be dragging him along through their connection… Not that they thought it actually worked that way, but the idea was there, all the same.

“Well… if we do stay here for a long time, it is good to know you’ll be working with someone you like… I mean, it wouldn’t be as if you could change whoever is testing you, right?”

Max took his time to answer her, making Liz almost believe that he had already fallen asleep.

“I think that if we hadn’t liked him for whatever reason, we could have said so and Dave would have fixed the problem…” Max slowly said, almost unsure of telling her that. Liz frowned at Max’s doubt. Still, probably because he felt her feeling him doubting, Max added: “Whatever Dave wants, whatever his real motives to keep us here are, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind changing whatever we don’t like so we stay. Even if it includes changing his friend.”

“I would like to meet him,” Liz said, her fingers tracing imaginary tiny lines over Max’s chest, a habit formed out of many insomnia filled nights, when they had escaped unseen dangers thanks to her now gone power.

“I’m sure you’ll meet sooner or later. No matter how big this place is, it is not that big.”

Liz had meant to ask him if she could just sort of come down to see the Lab, but she knew Max needed some time to adapt himself to that place, to somehow make sure it was safe enough for her to be there or something. She could respect that, but she was also sure that sooner or later she would go down and have a look around. She needed to see where her husband was going to spend all that time. And, if she was honest with herself, she also needed to see that the place was safe for him, and that Max wasn’t somehow blocking her out, not letting her feel everything that was going on down there.

“You know, he might end up teaching me or something…” Liz said, Max’s breathing now steadily going slower, her own voice coming out drowsy. They were really falling asleep.

“Hm…” Max said, placing his right hand over her left one, “maybe I’ll go with you one of these days to hit that punching bag…”

Liz smiled. Max had probably felt her thought about wanting him to be safe and the anger of doubting if he was safe or not in this place. That punching bag had come in handy. It would probably come in handy all week long… maybe longer too. Liz moved an inch or two to re-accommodate herself by Max’s side, and a good group of her muscles –mostly her arms, back and upper chest and back- made her wince in pain.

“Are you sure?” Max asked. Liz didn’t need to look up to know Max had half opened his eyes to look at her. She also didn’t need to ask him what he was talking about.

“I’m sure,” she answered back. She was firm in her belief that if Max healed her aching muscles it would just be all the same tomorrow. No. If she just went through the whole week without cheating on this, by Friday night she would be ready to take salsa lessons if she wanted to without so much as a second thought about her sore body.

Max carefully hugged her a little bit stronger with his left arm. “My brave girl,” he said, his chest moving with his quiet laughter, making her believe he was finally content in this place, in this situation.

He almost fooled her. Almost, but not really. In the depths of his sleepy thoughts, Max was worrying about something. He had kept her away from that place all afternoon, but because now his inner walls were crumbling thanks to the day’s tiredness, Liz was having a glimpse of it. Nothing big, just a glimpse, but it was something. Max sensed her a second too late.

“You are worrying about Michael?” Liz said, finally understanding Max’s almost fading thoughts.

“A little…” Max answered, his teasing tone nowhere to be heard, “he’s going to meet with Dave tomorrow… and I’m not sure how’s that going to end…”

“Michael’s going to be fine… He would not say something he would regret later…” Liz couldn’t read Max’s thoughts, but if she had to put in words the feelings she was getting from the man right beside her, she would say he was thinking something along I wish I could believe that one… Max felt a twinge of guilt for doubting his best friend, but it was only a twinge. Michael had proven again and again that when you acted impulsively, there was little room for rational thoughts. Little to no room at all…

“He’s nervous too…” Max said, more awake now than just a minute before. “He’s been quiet and snappy all afternoon long…”

“I thought that was how Michael acted whenever we got into shopping mode…” Liz tried to joke, but there was not much humor in her voice. There wasn’t much sleep in it either. Max’s feelings shifted once again, to something resembling reproach: This is why I didn’t want you in this part of my head. Now we are both awake, fearing tomorrow just as we were yesterday fearing today.

Liz placed her hand over Max’s heart, two inches from her own face. No, this is why I wanted to be in that part of your head, because you shouldn’t worry alone for these things.

They both laughed. A quiet and small laugh, but a genuine one, nonetheless. And it felt good too. They weren’t really talking, but the sense of their shifting feelings in response to each other’s was a real way of communication between them. One they were barely understanding and even less controlling, but still it was a funny feeling.

“He’s going to be all right, Max,” Liz said and felt at the same time. She reassured him through their connection that she did believe his best friend was going to act according to the circumstances. Michael might be the least one of them cheering on accepting this offer, but he had accepted. He also knew the stakes.

“This is going to be a long week, isn’t it?” Max asked aloud, his left hand starting to caress her hair in slow feathered movements.

After Michael, it would be her turn to… talk to Dave on Wednesday, not to mention that Max was the last on the list, scheduled for Saturday morning… Liz slightly nodded over Max’s rising and falling chest. But we are going to do alright, she sent to Max with a confidence she was clinging to. They had been in the compound for three days now, a damned short time to feel confident and safe down here, but she had to try… they all had to try, didn’t they?

TBC…

Thanks to the Discovery Channel for all the info about men vs. women when it comes to reflexes.

Post by **Island Breeze** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 10:51 pm

Three days? It seems like a month already! So much is going on! I love that the guys were wondering how shopping is supposed to be relaxing.

And Maria was too funny! Actually, I guess a free shopping spree would not be a bad thing!

8)

Then this part, I thought, was rather pivotal and very interesting:

“This place,” Jake had said while they were taking seats together, as far away as physically possible from him, “has sensors all over it. So I’m collecting data from all of you and myself right now. Just your basic vital information.” Max had looked up at the green ceiling then, wondering how fast his heart was beating at that moment. “Now, what I meant with preset you was that I need to know what is happening to you in any normal circumstance. Kind of having a basic measure. I know how a human body reacts to normal stimuli, so I need to know how similar your reactions to ours are.” Jake had then turned to look at them with a genuine smile, almost a reassuring one. He was really enjoying the moment. “Pick up your cars.”

But the reactions from certain members of the group were classic:

“That’s interesting,” Liz said after Max had finished the explanation. “I wouldn’t have thought of that,” she added thoughtfully. “Does that mean all week long you are going to play that game? Maybe longer?”

“Hell no,” Michael said, outraged, “I’ll fry that thing first.” Max almost chuckled at Michael’s outburst. Out of the three of them, Michael was the one with far more hours on playing games than the five of them put together. But then again…

“You are just mad because I beat the crap out of you two,” Isabel said with a bright smile at Michael’s annoyance, standing up to go to the buffet, though Max was suspecting she was more likely escaping Michael’s scowl. Though his best friend had started “beating the crap out of them” –Jake included- Isabel had progressively managed the little tricks of the game.

Actually, I know they are longing for safety and normality, but if I were any of them, Max or Michael especially, I think I would have warning bells going off all the time right now! And Michael kind of does... Max, too, I guess. Great part!

Post by **Ti88** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 11:17 pm

talk about a long short. great new parts. ok i know i'm leaving the feedback, i just can't find it. the is getting wacky.

so it seems jake is the one in charge, since he found dave?

Misha · Post by **Misha** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 10:08 pm

Thanks for coming back to read!

I’m posting one day earlier because tomorrow is my birthday (yay!!!!), and though I really wanted to post till then, I think things might get complicated at work and then at home… sooooo…

Island Breeze, yeah, just three days... and that had practically taken me more than a year to write... I can't believe you guys have already read 116 pages! Oh, they are still worried, you'll see. But they can only worried too much at any given point.

Ti88 you left me wondering what "the ___ is getting wacky" meant...

"long short parts", uh? Yeah, I like to take things sssslooooow :D I don't know, I love insights, and I wanted to explain a lot of things from all Roswell. Besides, books 2 and 3 won't give me that chance, sooooooo...

Oh, and Jake and Dave's relationship... and past... well... you'll have to wait to see

Thank you guys for the feedback!!

XII
Thoughts

5:23 a.m. was a slightly better hour to awake than 5:58 a.m., but it still sucked. Michael slowly rolled over his back after seeing the hour on the digital clock alarm beside his bed. He knew that 37 minutes weren’t going to be enough to fall asleep again before the alarm went off. But all the same, he didn’t want to fall asleep again.

Michael had said once that he dreamed they all got whacked every other night. Except that now he had dreamed they were being whacked every single night for the past 6 nights… oh wait, make that nine nights, since three of those he couldn’t really account for… he had been kidnapped and drugged into oblivion, so he couldn’t really say what he had been dreaming then… that is, if he had dreamed at all.

Uneasiness was crawling steadily inside his being… almost as something alien… Almost but not quite, and even if it were something alien, so what? He was part one too, it was as much part of him as his human side –with all the mess of emotions and feelings— was. Long ago, in a kitchen far, far away from where he was now, he and Max had fought about why they didn’t want –or were scared- to be alien or human. Now they both understood how wrong they had been. They were actually both.

Max had said that the thought had truly and completely hit him when he was buying the others time to get out of the auditorium on their graduation ceremony, when his mind had gone completely blank about what to say to everyone in that place, and he had just started saying what he felt.

Michael had beaten him on this one. He had begun to understand it a little before he had decided to stay on Earth because of Maria. Right after talking to Max, now that he was thinking about it. Right after talking to him in a park late at night. Max had been telling him how then he was beginning to see that they didn’t belong here, that no matter how hard he wanted it to be true, they weren’t human.

“Lately, I've been thinking that you might have been right all along.” Max had said, for some unexplainable reason agreeing with him on a subject they had never agreed upon.

“Lately, I've been thinking I might have been wrong all along,” and Michael wasn’t going to let him down. They weren’t agreeing now either.

That night Michael had thought, really thought about what it meant to be human or alien. He had despised his human side just as much Max had despised his alien side, and in that moment, when Michael was thinking about sides, he had, as Max would tell him a couple of years afterwards, truly and completely understood: They were both. The fact that they had always seen themselves as divided, even before knowing they were, indeed, half and half, science and all, should have told them that all along.

With the ship gone and no way of getting home, Michael had just stopped thinking altogether about his sides. He was staying on Earth, and he was going to be one hell of an earthling then. No point on reaching for the stars, kiddo, you are stuck on same ole Earth. He guessed now it had helped him to, well, sort of blend in both perspectives of himself. Still, old habits died hard, because sometimes –often, really- he still thought of himself as either alien or human… hardly both.

And his human side was petrified about what was going to happen to him as a whole because of his alien side. Hence the dreams. He had been fine through all those seven months after they had left Roswell. Sure, he had dreamt it then, but he was used to those visits around once a month. But nine days ago, they had been found. Since Liz’s premonitions were no longer a safety net, they had been barely able to escape. The dreams had started then. Three days after that, they had been trapped, without even knowing it. That had done nothing good for his dreams once he had been able to dream again.

He had never been a big believer in dreams until he had been haunted by nightmares about tainted money. That had ended up with him and the others spending all of it in Vegas. Somehow, he knew Vegas wasn’t going to solve his nightmares this time around. The dreams weren’t that bad, probably because he barely remembered them, but they were getting worse. Usually, he would somehow feel Maria nearby, and the nightmare would just shake itself off. He had never awakened up Maria because of a bad dream, and he wasn’t intending on starting now.

That was why Michael had slept alone that night. It had been bad enough the day before when he hadn’t been able to control his nervous energy, actually being unable to put off his sparkles in front of prying eyes. That was how he felt in this place, that there were prying eyes everywhere, watching over him, waiting… Waiting for what? Hell if he knew, but waiting all the same. He hadn’t been comfortable at all with that Jake guy looking at him with those round eyes while a damned spark was escaping his fingers. He hadn’t needed sugar right then, he had needed to hit something, blow something up, burst something into oblivion. A car game hadn’t really helped with that subject…

Michael truly needed to get rid of this constantly building energy right underneath his fingertips, but there was nothing at hand to do that… He could use a walk under the lonely stars too, but, ladies and gentlemen, that was also out of his possibilities… Damn this place! His brand new clock alarm burst into a hundred pieces and a thousand sparkles to his left. Michael didn’t even flinch. After all, everything related to him always –always- ended up in pieces and sparkles, so there was no real surprise there…

Taking a deep breath, Michael tried to calm himself a little bit. No use trashing this place so then some Network Keeper would come and see. He didn’t want anyone coming and seeing, though he wasn’t completely sure there weren’t any hidden cameras registering right now what he had just done. Passing a hand over the smoky remains of the clock to extinguish the smoke –similar experiences years ago had taught him that leaving your bursting things alone would invariably activate some smoke detector somewhere, and he really, truly didn’t want anyone coming and seeing- he finally gave up on being in bed and got up.

Feeling like a caged lion, Michael walked to the kitchen and grabbed a Snapple out of the fridge. At least yesterday’s trip to “The Shop” had replenished his favorite beverage. He wasn’t sure why he liked it so much, especially since he didn’t add Tabasco or sugar to it, —not often anyway— but the fact was undeniable. The funny thing was —or would have been if Michael had been in a better mood to think about it— that the six of them had actually gotten addicted to it. Sure, Max would always go for a Cherry Coke over a Snapple any given day, but still, no one complained when the multicolored bottles were occupying a large space in his refrigerator.

For two seconds he stopped in the living room on his way to his bedroom. He could sit down and watch something on the big screen –maybe Braveheart for the 500th time- but he guessed he really wasn’t in the mood to lay still, watching a movie, no matter how good that movie was. The irony was –and this time Michael was in the right mood to actually see the irony- that two minutes later, he was back in his bed, laying still. So, no movie, but staring at one’s ceiling wasn’t proactive either.

Minutes went away, and he sourly thought for a second that his life was going away as well. He wasn’t much of a philosopher, but he did like to think about bigger things, meaningful things, even the nature of things. It was a long ago developed habit, when he was stuck in his trailer room, not being able to do anything –and with anything he meant not even a sound- laying on his bed staring at the ceiling. He had known then just as he had finally discovered later, that there was something out there, something important waiting for him. He wondered for a whole minute if that something important was still waiting for him…

He let the thought go. His Antarian side had brought him nothing else but trouble, and besides, it wasn’t as if he could go there. Certainly, he didn’t want to go there, not now that he had finally found home with Maria on this God forsaken planet. Still, he did wonder sometimes… were they still being expected? Or their legend was good enough to sustain the rebellion or whatever it was that wanted them home in the first place?

And what if he could go back? Well, screw them all, Michael silently thought as his mind filled with Maria’s laughter, with her tears, with her songs, with her walk. God, there was nothing about Maria that Michael didn’t love, even when she was driving him nuts, or kicking him at night as he watched her sleep. And Michael did love to do that, to watch her sleep.

He had stayed with her till later that night, giving her a massage over her sore muscles, as she asked him about how it really had gone with him and the lab. Somewhere along those lines he knew that Maria wanted to ask him to let her feel him, but Michael was unsure of how good that would be. From what the love of his life had told him, Liz had pretty much zoned out all morning long. He didn’t want Maria worrying that bad. But if something bad ever happened to him, and he needed Maria to flee for her life, he would make sure that the message would come across loud and clear.

She had fallen asleep murmuring something about who needed Max when Michael was there with his magic fingers, and he had murmured back that he was going to his place. Since she was too far gone into sleepiness, she hadn’t been able to argue the point for once. He knew she thought that he shouldn’t be alone right now, but just for this night, Michael really needed to think things through on his own. He sort of needed his space, he guessed.

More minutes passed away, and Michael started to feel sleepy again. He had started to feel sleepy too that day just a week and a half ago when the Special Unit had landed on them. The thought —the memory— snapped him into wakefulness.

Kyle had been the one on the lookout that night, but something inside Michael was uneasy about something he couldn’t put his finger on… So he had actually stayed awake that night too, sort of keeping Kyle company, both silently arguing about the last hokey game and making bets about the upcoming Super Bowl. He could still remember Kyle joking about Liz’s great potential at this betting stuff and that he just knew what he would do if he suddenly started getting glimpses of the future. He also clearly remembered when Kyle had suddenly changed the subject to ask him —in mock seriousness— what should he give Maria for her birthday. Michael had stared at Kyle, but he hadn’t been really seeing him.

There hadn’t been a sound, but there had been a feeling that had made all the little hairs at the back of his neck stand on end. Something was off, very off. Sure, the thought of Maria’s birthday present did make his skin go cold —for some stupid reason, he never seemed to get her the right present, and that was getting old…— but it was a feeling he would not –could not- ignore.

“Call Max,” Michael had quietly said to Kyle, his eyes now looking out the window, searching for a movement, a shadow out of place, something out there that was wrong with the picture. He had heard Kyle pressing the fast dial to Max’s cell phone —the last day they had had their cell phones, since those would be forgotten on their hasty departure out of Mountain Motel, Colorado— when Michael had finally found what he was so desperately trying to not find.

At one corner of the far end of the motel —which was built in a “C” fashion, and their rooms where all in the mid section of it— someone was crouching behind a car. Michael had barely gotten a glimpse of him, probably would have missed it if he had blinked, but the fact was that a man crouching behind a car at 1:00 a.m. was enough to make his skin go more than cold. If he had had the time, he would probably have marveled at the contradiction of feelings inside of him: A part of him had been petrified, the other part had raced through all the options he had available to get themselves out of there.

“Max is coming,” Kyle said, still holding the cell phone, probably thinking about calling Isabel.

“No!” Michael had answered back in a harsh —if quiet— tone. Taking the device away from a very bewildered Kyle, he spoke into it, “They are here, come through the wall.” Tossing the cell into Kyle’s hands so he could then call Isabel, Michael returned his attention to the very unmoving outside. He couldn’t see them, but he just knew that their hunters were moving out there, getting closer.

We have to get out of here now, Michael thought, not surprised to see a section of both walls at his sides disappearing into nothingness. Practice had paid off. Ever since they had started to stay in separate rooms, they had practiced materializing and de-materializing walls. Definitely a wise decision.

“How many?” Max had said, his features grim in the pale moonlight, his eyes going directly to the window. They were some good three feet from it. No point in giving anyone a clear shot. Isabel joined them a second later, her eyes equally searching. The other three were gathering the few things they had with them. Especially the thick coats they would need in this cold weather.

“So far, one, behind that car. We should probably just get through the back wall…” Michael trailed off.

“Except that you think they will cover the back exit…” Max said finishing Michael’s unspoken words.

“We need a diversion,” Liz had said from behind them, handing Max his coat.

“Exactly,” Isabel had agreed, her eyes focusing on the car that Michael had pointed out seconds before. Then the most terrifying thing happened: The window crashed as a gas bomb entered into their room, other windows crashing on the other two rooms. The gas started to pour as fast as Michael could send the metal artifact right back out of the room through the same window, a gesture more out of instinct than of reason.

Max had put up his shield in that moment —and, hiding a short distance away, had made Steve Lewis and company, the three men that three days later would actually catch them in Dave’s name, wonder what the hell the green light was, though this, of course, the gang hadn’t known- the green energy mixing up with the gas, creating a weird mist inside and outside the room.

They are going to storm in here in two seconds, Michael wildly thought as he turned around to make a hole in the back wall. Besides the windows crashing, there had been barely any sounds. The six of them had been able to keep mute, —hardly suppressing their coughs because of the remnants of the gas— knowing that any sound coming from outside was a desperate advantage over their enemy. As Michael made a narrow escape route, he heard an explosion. A big one.

Isabel was standing with her right hand pointing at something outside, Max apparently having dropped the shield just for a second to give his sister the opportunity to aim. His green protection returned for another five seconds and, dropping it again, he let Isabel blow up another car in the other corner of the motel. By that point, Michael was already urging the other three to get ready to get out as he was putting on his own coat.

“We need to shield ourselves,” Liz had said as Michael was peering outside, expecting to see a dozen FBI agents crawling out of the wood that was some fifteen feet away. Isabel was blowing up yet another car as Michael thoroughly searched. They were not going to come out of an ambush to just end up in another.

There weren’t a dozen, but three. And three was certainly a number he could manage. He was strong enough on any given day to send three people flying a good distance away, but add adrenaline into the mix, and Michael would send more than three people flying further than just a good distance away. He had thought he had seen the last of them as his invisible force sent them through the air but, as ten seconds after he would know, he had been wrong.

The sound of the forth car exploding overcame the sound of the shot, yet not the pain that it gave him. He had been melting snow in such a fast way, that the subsequent physical reaction that made the snow into vapor was creating the shield that Liz had said they needed. At 1:00 a.m. with mist surrounding them, they had a good chance to get out of there unseen. That was, of course, until he had been shot.

The fifth and last car exploded as Michael collided with the wall, his left shoulder feeling like hell. Sure, he had been shot before, but that didn’t mean it got any easier or painless with practice.

Michael absently ran his right hand over his left shoulder, the sensation so vivid in his mind he could almost believe he was going to find blood there. Max and Isabel had come out two seconds after, their combined strength not only truly sending those agents to fly away, but speeding the process of the growing mist. Then their run through the woods had begun. They had always parked one of the three cars they were using half a mile from where they were staying, making it their “escape” car just for precaution. And God, had they needed to escape that night.

Max had healed him some thirty feet into the woods, despite the fact that Michael was arguing he wouldn’t allow him to do so until they were in the car. He was not going to slow them down. It sure hurt as hell times four, but he could run.

“You are going to leave a blood trail,” Max had said barely catching his breath before placing his hand over Michael’s shoulder. Max wasn’t asking if he wanted or not to be healed, he was giving a command. It took him over a minute to finish —probably because Max was already exhausted from using his shield— and when he finally took his hand off, he gave a small smile to Michael. “And besides,” he added, “I can run too after healing you.”

Granted, Max had been able to run, but Michael had known that once they got into the car he was sending Max into the back seat for a well needed sleep.

And a well needed sleep was exactly what Michael had lacked ever since that night. Now that he couldn’t see the hour through the fried pieces that once were his clock alarm, Michael put his wrist watch in front of his face, with his other hand pressing the button that would light up the digital numbers: 5:58:58. Michael closed his eyes, resisting the urge of letting energy go wildly around his room, breaking the next best thing. It figured it would be this close to his waking hour.

He tried to let his mind go blank, which worked for about three seconds, when Kyle’s words echoed in his head: So, what are you going to give Maria for her birthday? Now, that effectively made his energy go hunting for something breakable, and his Snapple bottle burst into little pieces, spilling its red contents over his night table at his right. God, this was going to be such a damned long day!

* * *

At exactly 5:58:59 Dave placed piece #1947 on its place –and he did notice the irony of that number. He knew that in order to finish this puzzle before his departure on Saturday night, he would have to put 2.08 pieces per minute during six days straight, sleeping only 4 hours each. Impossible? No, but it wasn’t possible either. He should be by now placing the 2748 piece if he had been going for that goal. The puzzle was a distraction, but there sure were distracters to this hobby of his. In fact, if it weren’t for Jake’s help, he would be around piece 1235 by now. Oh right, Kyle had done his share yesterday, so let’s not forget his 43 pieces of contribution.

Dave smiled. He was glad Kyle had started to put pieces together because that meant that at least on some level Kyle was feeling comfortable, or somehow safe, talking to him. If only today’s interview were going to be that easy… Kyle had been the first because he was the outsider, but Michael had been the second because he was the toughest. To that adjective he could easily add defensive, distrustful, impulsive, suspicious and lots and lots of other ways of describing Michael’s nature. The guy was a challenge, and Dave had a very distinctive hunch that Michael was not going to add a single piece to this puzzle.

What Dave hoped was that Michael would add lots of pieces to the puzzle of who they were and what had they done during their lives. Life was made of details, memories archived in one’s head, and Dave had to find the way of making them tell him those relevant pieces that would make the picture of their characters come into focus.

It was a strange feeling, Dave marveled while searching for the next piece, that he wanted and didn’t want to meet with Michael in an hour. He had met with all kinds of people during his life, but Michael was one of a kind. They all were, he guessed, but Michael was going to be difficult to win over. Difficult with a capital “d”, bolded and underlined, please. Dave just knew that even if his plan worked and the six of them stayed in here as long as they should —or he hoped— Michael would never really trust him. It was, after all, in Michael’s nature to be distrustful.

It wasn’t okay, but Dave would have to settle down with the fact that Michael was here, under his wing, whether he was willingly doing it or not. He had spent the whole night thinking through what exactly he should say and could ask without the scenario turning into him stamped on the wall. Michael was capable of that and much more. Dave could judge a person’s character pretty well, and he knew Michael wouldn’t kill him except in an extreme situation. But the fact that Dave had thought if Michael could be potentially deadly was testimony to the extremes Dave was considering. He was nowhere near planning a confrontation with Max’s best friend, but to know what one’s opponent can be capable of was Tactics 101.

He wished for a brief second that Michael had taken Diplomacy 101, because then, in the complicated word-dance that was the diplomatic world, one pretty much knew the rules and how to play the game. But since that was out of the question, what was left? Plain boldness? An exchange of questions and answers? A very intricate mine field on which one was waiting for the other to miss a step and see him blowing up? Dave would probably go for “all of the above”. He knew he needed to be honest with Michael —that was, more honest with him than with anyone else— and that he would probably have to answer some questions too. Now, was he going to be able to evade the mines? Avoid answers that could potentially lead to lies that Dave would have to keep for years?

Because the problem with lying was exactly that: Maintenance. That was why Dave preferred omissions, which were a whole lot more manageable and easy to conceal. He wondered if Michael knew that. So far, he hadn’t been able to tell how many lies and how many omissions Kyle had –or hadn’t- told him, because he needed the others’ accounts of events to compare, but he was intrigued about how much information Michael was willing to give.

Dave had been in the business of information more time than Michael’s whole life, so he also knew that the fact that Michael was telling him something didn’t automatically mean he was telling the truth, of course, but Dave could detect when someone was… eager to talk in a situation where he shouldn’t. Usually, that was when that someone was giving misinformation. Would Michael fall into that?

Michael was a mystery. After Tess, Michael was one of the key pieces that still remained with so many blanks. So many gaps to be filled in. Out of the six of them, Michael hadn’t had a… well, caring home. Had missed school a lot, had pretty much remained a loner. When for some reason Max and Isabel were out of the picture, Michael had kept to himself. Placing another piece, he wondered for the millionth time how Maria had been able to intrude into Michael’s world. Maybe he should have had Maria first…

Placing piece #1959, Dave wondered too how Max and Michael managed to actually get along. He had the distinct idea that Isabel had a lot to do with that, but he also wondered if there was a deeper bond than just the fact that they were the only three hybrids on the planet. Except for the truth, there was nothing that Dave valued more than true friendship, and he knew that not all friendships made sense. Two friends didn’t have to be the same, or even alike to actually enjoy their time with the other.

The funny thing was that he should question Maria’s and Liz’s friendship as well, since both girls were at opposite extremes, but it always seemed easier for girls to get along with others. He guessed that what puzzled him about Max and Michael’s friendship was that they wanted different things, but somehow converged toward a middle ground.

And how much of that friendship did they share with Isabel? Being the only girl in the group, especially someone as, well, girlie as Isabel, must have been lonely. He would have been a little bit more accurate with that thought if he had actually heard Isabel’s statement to Liz and Maria days before her wedding: Since you guys are the closest thing I have to girlfriends…

Of course, if he wanted to examine weird friendships, he should start with Jake and himself. Jake had told him yesterday that the Pod Squad –and he had to admit that pet name was growing on him— looked as bad as Dave had looked the first time they had met. Back then he was having an asthma attack, one of the worst he could remember, and truth to be told, Dave could barely remember Jake at all at that exact moment.

He remembered Jake had been the first person Dave had seen in his life with red hair, though Jake’s wasn’t all that red, it was more like brown with reddish tones. Even now, when his best friend was 43 years old, his hair looked just the same. Back in that day, Dave had also thought that Jake had freckles, but that had been a mistake. Those had been crumbs. The other thing that was just the same with Jake was he was as thin as ever. How could someone who ate at all times be that thin was a complete mystery to everyone who met Jake.

Jake had never really told him why he had been in the nursery that day, now that he was thinking about it. Not that it mattered now. They had started their friendship that day and thirty one years later they remained friends. They had never lost track of each other, though there had been a couple of years where they hadn’t seen each other. It just hadn’t been safe. And sure, Ray had come into the picture some eight years ago, and though both Jake and Dave respected him and did see him as a friend, Ray just wasn’t the same. Ray hadn’t lived through what they had. Dave sometimes wondered if Ray thought he wasn’t as closed in the circle because he wasn’t a genius. Oh, Dave knew, and Jake knew too, that sometimes they did leave Ray out in the cold, but they just couldn’t help it.

Except that now Dave was leaving both of them out in the cold with this plan of his, and… he couldn’t help it. He knew things could potentially go easier if he actually confided in them, they might even see some angle he wasn’t considering –which was unlikely, but it could be there. They wouldn’t betray him, but… he had promised.

Jake had told him once that because he was an Aquarius he had his own moral code. Dave had laughed at that, because in some way, it was true. After the truth and friendship, keeping promises was third on his list. The problem with having a code was that, when you had to break it for something bigger, it didn’t quite feel that good. He more than likely would end up lying to his friends just to keep secret his promise, his plan. And no matter how reasonable his motives were, he still didn’t like that part.

Dave wondered too if Michael had lied to Max in order to protect him. Would Michael understand his motives to remain silent about the truth of why he wanted them here? Dave wasn’t psychic, but he knew they must suspect something, and he would bet this whole complex that Michael suspected it more than the others. They would certainly find out sooner or later –a lot later than sooner, he certainly hoped— but he had to remain cautious until that moment came. He couldn’t risk blowing it up.

* * *

Max had thought that today’s walk to the Lab would have been easier, but he had been wrong. Part of him was glad that now Kyle was with the girls, but the other part of him was petrified about knowing that Michael was now with Dave too. Of course, if Max had known what Kyle had chosen to not tell them about his sparks, Max would find that his level of anxiousness could still go higher… way higher.

But since he was so mercifully ignorant, he tried to concentrate on staying calm and to actually convince Liz that everything was all right. This, thankfully, was immensely easier than yesterday since this time she actually believed it. She had teased him earlier about video games and he had teased her back about punching bags. They had been trying to start the morning lightly, and at least they had succeeded in not thinking this was going to be the last time they were going to see each other. That was, of course, if Michael didn’t blow up Dave or something…

Michael had been quiet and had been pretty much annoyed at anything anyone had said when they were walking to the Gym. Max had wanted to ask him if he was all right, but knew he would only gain a scowl from his best friend. So he had let it go, only nodding at Michael when they had departed to their own corridors. The best thing Max could do for Michael was showing him he trusted him. And he did, he just didn’t trust his impulsive acts…

Max desperately wanted to believe Liz’s words about Michael knowing the stakes. Michael knew, of course, but Michael was also not sure that out there was worse than down here. Max wasn’t sure either, especially when he was sitting in Jake’s office, outside the real Lab. This place gave him the creeps, and there was nothing Jake could do or say to change that.

He and Isabel had arrived at Jake’s Office/Lab five minutes ago and were now sitting on the same couch they had been yesterday. It was weird to be here without Michael, because it somehow made him feel less protected. Granted, he and his sister could take care of themselves, but there was an element of strength, both physical and mental, he guessed, to having Michael beside you. Because no matter where they were, Michael would always rise to the occasion. He was, well, dependable, Max realized a little bit startled.

No matter how impulsive he was or how many troubles Michael had gotten them into, Michael had always had their best interests at heart. Sure, Michael had the annoying habit of not thinking about consequences, but Michael acted out of good reasons. Now, if only Max could actually understood Michael’s definition of good reasons, Max might not be worrying so much.

“You should have told me you wanted to talk to Liz yesterday,” Jake was saying, bringing three Cherry Cokes with him. Max looked at him a little bit surprised.

“What do you mean?” he cautiously asked. Ray hadn’t known about his connection with Liz, but Jake didn’t know either? That gave him a glimmer of hope about hiding, lessening and exchanging their powers without being caught.

“Yesterday Ray told me Liz had been distracted all morning. The same applies to you. Apparently, you both were checking on each other or something like that?” Jake asked him, obviously wanting him to elaborate. Well, there was no point in denying it, Maria had told Ray, and it was going to be just ridiculous if they had to hide such a strong bonding.

“Yeah… we have this… we call it ‘connection’…” Max answered, a little bit unsure. Unconsciously, he had raised his right hand to his right earlobe. “I feel what she’s feeling and she feels what I’m feeling.”

“My sympathies,” Jake said passing the Cherry Cokes. Both Max and Isabel frowned at him, not knowing what to say, Max dropping his hand, still unconsciously. “I mean, out of ten emotions, women are going to understand ten, men only six. So, if you are dealing with a girl’s emotions, I do not envy you at all. I bet you get lost in translation half the time.”

Both Jake and Isabel smiled at that, Max wasn’t sure if he liked it or not. Had he been missing on Liz’s feelings? He didn’t think so… Did Liz understand him way better than he did? Probably… Women…

“Does this go on between you and Jesse?” Jake was now asking Isabel, who lost her smile in a second.

“No,” she answered seriously, almost icily.

That had been a very sore point when it came to compare the three couples. Jesse had never wanted to know a thing about alien powers until it had been too late. So, while Max could turn red roses into white and Michael could explode things in front of Maria when he was frustrated, Isabel couldn’t show her love or let go her anger in any other way than the very normal and human ways which excluded alien powers. It wasn’t fair. Their powers were so much of who they were. First she had hidden them, and then she was just too scared of scaring Jesse with them. So, no, no connection with Jesse could have been possible. Maybe if they had stayed together, and maybe if Jesse had seen the beauty of it, then it would have happened…

Jake must have sensed Isabel’s distress with the whole subject, but Max guessed Jake didn’t want to change it. Still, he didn’t press Isabel for details.

“Do Michael and Maria…?” he tentatively asked. Anything they hadn’t discussed should remain the same, Max reminded himself. This hadn’t been discussed, and well… if Michael and Maria’s bond actually got that strong…

“Sometimes,” Isabel answered before him. “And it only happens from Michael’s side.”

“You mean Michael is the only one who feels Maria’s feelings?” They both nodded. “Is there a why?” This time Max and Isabel exchanged glances.

“I think Michael doesn’t want Maria feeling him,” Max slowly said, not quite looking at Jake, certainly not wanting to elaborate on Michael’s personal life.

“Hm…” Was Jake’s only response to that, almost as if he could actually understand why Michael didn’t want Maria feeling him. After a short pause, he looked straight at Max, “Has this had any effect on Liz or Maria?”

Max went cold. Did he know? Did he know about Liz’s changes? A tiny little voice reminded him Jake had asked for both Liz and Maria, so the question wasn’t exclusive to Liz… no way Jake could know, right?

“What do you mean, ‘effects’?” Isabel asked in a rather worried tone.

“Um, headaches, insomnia, tiredness, lack of appetite… hearing voices?” Jake said the last one joking, but Max wasn’t feeling like laughing at all.

“Why do you think there could be ‘effects’?” he asked, sounding every bit worried as Isabel had just ten seconds before.

“Are there?” Jake asked, dropping the humor, a little bit confused because of both Max’s and Isabel’s concern. Max didn’t care. What was he talking about? Could there still be some hidden “effects” waiting to just jump over Liz’s health? He had seen the effects of healing Liz, but was he somehow hurting her now with their connection? For that moment Max totally closed his connection to Liz, something he would definitely need to explain in a major way later that day to his wife.

“I imagine that if there were, you would have already said so,” Jake said after fifteen seconds of silence had gone by, both Evans wanting to know the new bad news. “Well, I’m just asking because it could be probable that, when you started this connection where someone else gets to feel you, you did so by stimulating areas of the brain that aren’t usually working. Hence the changes.”

Hence Liz’s headaches, Max thought. She had had migraines because of her powers. So by taking care of the headaches, he had taken care of her powers too. And if this connection was somehow affecting her, well, there was just no choice to be made. The connection would have to go too. Still, he reminded himself that so far, nothing else had happened to Liz.

“Neither Liz or Maria has said anything about that… I mean, we were tired of running, but they never said anything different than the rest of us were feeling.” Max looked at Isabel to corroborate his story and to, well, pass the unspoken message of remember, Liz’s powers and headaches are out of the question.

“How long has this connection been going on?” Now Max was beginning to feel a little bit uncomfortable with talking about his powers. It probably was that he was talking about something as special as his bond with Liz. He didn’t want anyone analyzing it and taking its magic away…

“For about a year, I guess… we weren’t sure it was there, and even then, it wasn’t there all the time.” Still, a deal was a deal. And sure, there were a million other things they could do that would spark Jake’s interest farther than something as “impractical” as his connection. And he had to factor in that this conversation could prevent bad things happening to his wife.

“Well, then she should be fine. Gradual changes are easily assimilated, you know. But,” Jake said, his tone serious now, “if anything ever happens, tell me. Whatever deal you made with Dave, whatever the hell you think he wants from you, all I care about is that you are okay. Don’t ever forget that.”

Max turned to look at Isabel, who was in turn looking at him. Jake was asking them to trust him beyond Dave? It was hard enough to be here, and sure they had to trust that Jake would keep them safe over whatever Dave wanted. But, weren’t the two of them together in this? So, what was Jake implying? That he didn’t know what Dave’s deal was? Or did he also suspect that whatever Dave wanted was as much a secret to him as it was to them?

Maybe, it was all a trap. Sure, whatever they weren’t telling Dave they could easily tell Jake, who would end up telling his buddy. Full circle or something like that. Michael might be the paranoid of the group, but Max was not far behind. And how did it go? It ain’t paranoia if you are actually being followed.

“I know,” Jake sighed, opening his Cherry Coke, “you don’t believe a word I say, but all the same I had to say it.”

“You don’t want us to trust you then?” Isabel asked, a little bit confused. Max knew that Isabel had thought pretty much the same he did, but she had a point: Wouldn’t Jake do anything in his power to make them trust him? Because that last sentence wasn’t much on the ‘trust-me’ theory…

“After two days of seeing my face? Hell no! That would be stupid of you. You are scared, trapped in an environment you’ve never been in or seen before, surrounded by strangers… really stupid. But you have to trust someone at some point if something is wrong with any of you. I’m not joking. You can have all your secrets and games with Dave, that’s what he suspects you are doing and what you suspect he’s doing, but cut the crap with me. I’m not going to be in the middle of you two.” Jake ended, now standing in front of them, pacing. With time, they would get used to Jake’s pacing and the fact that Jake never seemed to notice he was doing it. All the same, both Isabel and Max were staring at him. That had been a very convincing speech, paranoia or no paranoia.

Taking a sip from his Cherry Coke, Jake took his seat again. Max could have sworn that Jake was blushing, and that the drinking act was just that, an act to cover it up. Since this morning Max and company had actually had breakfast, neither Isabel or he had opened their cans. They just didn’t feel like drinking right now, but since Jake’s eyes kept turning to their unopened sodas, Max finally gave in. He guessed a little gesture of… cooperation couldn’t hurt.

“That settled down, about no one getting side effects for your potential connections,” Jake said a little bit sheepish, “what about you? Do you have connections of your own?”

“You mean with each other,” Isabel said glancing at Max, then looking back at Jake.

“Yeah, some sort of telepathy, empathy… any type of connection?”

Both siblings looked at each other. There wasn’t any sort of connection between them. In fact, when Tess had announced to Michael and Isabel that she would have felt if something happened to Max, they had been puzzled. Would Tess have been really capable of that? Would they some day in the future? Because when Max had actually died, only Liz had truly felt it.

“We sort of can connect with anyone,” Max started, doubting every word, “and that would apply to each other I guess… we just rarely ever do it.” Max ended up almost whispering. He hadn’t thought he was going to have such a hard time talking openly about his powers. Well, maybe that time with his parents after they had found out about the truth, but this was entirely different. Jake was seeking explanations, so Max felt as if his every word was being measured.

“I was aiming for something that only happened between the three of you… maybe just the two of you, since you are brother and sister.” Jake said, clearly eager to know more, but being patient all the same. Max felt as if Jake had all the time in the world to listen to them. That was weird. It made him feel as if he should fill in the space, not leaving Jake waiting.

“Well…” Isabel started, looking at him almost as if she were asking for permission. Max frowned. Where was Isabel going? “There was this, I don’t know what it was… It was something like, this sort of communication when we first emerged from the pods.”

If Max had been drinking, he would have probably spat it all out. He had completely forgotten about that right this moment, but why was Isabel telling it? Sure, there was no harm in it –apparently— but the less they said, the better he would feel.

“You don’t remember it?” Jake asked Max now, and Max was forced to refocus on the fact that he wasn’t alone with his sister in this room, much less alone with his own musings.

“I remember we did it, I just don’t remember how we were doing it. Besides, it faded when we started to talk. We never regained it again.” Which was the truth. Maybe Isabel was getting the same feeling of not wanting to leave spaces in this conversation… But in contrast with Michael’s impulsive acts, Isabel wasn’t the act now and think later type of person –thank goodness, one in the group was enough— so Max was trusting that she had some very good reasons for talking about this.

“Okay…” Jake said, a little bit thoughtful. It looked as if he wanted to ask or say something else, but was deciding against it. Max and Isabel exchanged glances again. “What about connecting with things? Psychometry?”

“Connecting with things?” Isabel said a little bit confused and annoyed. Max was taken aback as well.

“You mean flashes?” Max said, trying to understand. The term psychometry did ring a bell somewhere in his head, but he couldn’t place where.

Jake smiled. “Same language and we do not understand ourselves. Let’s see, last time I checked the definition, it meant getting psychic vibrations from objects. Do you get images or feelings from the past, present or future by touching things?”

Tricky question. Fortunately, this one they had discussed, so they were ready for it.

“We sometimes get flashes from the past, but so far, only the past.” Isabel answered, and it was just a brilliant answer. So far, meaning that she was leaving open the door just in case Liz got her powers back and they had to fake seeing the future.

“And it barely happens at all,” Max elaborated. Actually, he was eager to develop this rare power of theirs.

“Happens? You mean you don’t control it?” Jake looked puzzled. Isabel and Max shook their head in a negative answer.

“It only happens when we are in intense situations,” Max said, his voice sounding more secure now than when he was talking about connections. “We touch some thing and we get some images and feelings from it, but that’s it. They never last too long either… just a couple of seconds.”

Jake slowly nodded, but he still looked puzzled. “Are there any other things that just happen?” When both shook their heads again, Jake leaned forward, “Have you ever lost control over your abilities?”

Max felt himself immediately blush. The one and only time he had completely lost control over his powers wasn’t exactly one to be proud of. And sure, there had been minor incidents when they were kids, but nothing major… And Michael had lost control of them out of jealousy that one time… and he kept exploding things at all times… And, though Max couldn’t really say she lost them, when Isabel got furious, things did tend to fly around…

“By the silence of you two, I would say the answer is ‘yes, but we won’t tell you’…” Gosh, why was Max feeling like a little kid in front of his teacher in elementary school? The room remained silent. “Okay…” Jake said slowly, “let me rephrase it: Do you lose control often?”

“No,” both said at the same time, a little bit offended. But then again, if Michael had been with them, that “no” might not had been all that accurate.

“Okay, I believe you,” Jake extended his hands in a peace gesture, “all I wanted to know was if we are going to need more security measures around here if you are going to start exploding things without previous warning.”

“You might want to hold to that if Michael is in a bad mood,” Isabel advised him, glancing at her watch. It was barely 7:16 a.m., and just like his, her thoughts were probably trying to figure out if Dave’s office was still in one piece.

“Is he often in a bad mood?” When both kids slowly nodded, Jake lifted his right hand to his nose bridge, in a gesture Max had seen people who wore glasses do all the time. Except that, in these two days, Jake hadn’t worn glasses at all. “Are you sure you kids want to do this? I know you made some sort of deal, but I really don’t want you exploding things out of rage.”

What exactly were they supposed to answer? Well, we are not thrilled, but our options are to be out there, running for our lives or to give ourselves to the FBI? For the first time that day, Max was glad that Michael wasn’t here. Max could certainly imagine his answer to this… That idea also gave him a very good insight as to why Jake was asking these questions today and hadn’t done so yesterday. Maybe he wanted Michael out of the room as well… All the same, both siblings remained silent.

“Do you even see any advantage by doing this?” Jake asked half desperate, half irritated.

“Sure…” Isabel started, and then she glanced at Max, clearly wanting him to continue… or more likely, wanting him to blow this up instead of her. Tension was hanging on the air.

“We are just not used to be so open about this…” Max said, thinking through every single word. “Like you said, it’s been only two days…”

Jake relaxed a little, just a little. “But you do see the advantages, right?”

“We do want to get better…” Isabel started. And okay, that was in part the truth; they did want to get better so they could have a better chance once the deal was over… And they had guessed there was some truth about really knowing how their powers work so they could do other things… but they really weren’t all that convinced…

Jake closed his eyes and placed his hand made into fist below his chin. He was clearly thinking something through. Both Max and Isabel stopped trying to figure out the best way to get out of this awkward situation, and let the man in front of them think in silence. “What about this?” Jake suddenly said thirty seconds later, “I’ll elaborate scenarios that you might find useful once you decide to get out there again. You can even create them yourselves and we’ll see how you can escape from those situations. We can even ask Ray, he’s an expert on ambushes.” By this point, Jake was at the edge of standing up and, yes, starting to pace, but he stopped himself before letting his imagination go. “Would that give you enough motivation to want to come down here five days a week? If you can learn how to escape?”

Max had to admit that it did sound promising, but part of him couldn’t let go the nagging feeling that there was a catch. Still, since there really wasn’t much a difference between if they wanted to come because all the same they had to come, Isabel and Max said yes a little bit more enthusiastically so Jake wouldn’t feel so down.

Later that day, Max would think that the idea had great potential and would feel more comfortable with it. Of course, even later that day, he would also think that this would show Jake –and Dave- exactly what their weak points were, but then again, they had been caught by these people already… All the same, in that moment where they were nodding, Max just hoped that Michael was going to be okay with this… and that he was actually okay right now up there.

TBC…

Author’s note: The paragraph from Michael’s thoughts “He had stayed with her till later that night, giving her a massage over her sore muscles,” was an insight that cinthialovesmym gave me at the Spanish boards. Thank you girl!

Oh, and I had decided to start spacing my posts because I’m barely 9 chapters ahead, but since you guys want to see Michael’s interview, I’ll come next Friday to post it :D Then I’ll start spacing my chapters

Post by **Ti88** » Sat Jan 28, 2006 12:56 am

nope hun i wasn't talking about the length of posts i was talking about the fact i remember levaing feedback somewhere i just don't remember where.

i see things getting really weird when dave's secret comes out.

Post by **Island Breeze** » Sat Jan 28, 2006 2:39 am

Learn how to escape? That should be interesting. It looks like the gang is geting a little tired of answering questions, or at least being very forthcoming with their answers, though. So Michael is a puzzle, huh? That should intrigue Dave all the more then! LOL!

Dave smiled. He was glad Kyle had started to put pieces together because that meant that at least on some level Kyle was feeling comfortable, or somehow safe, talking to him. If only today’s interview were going to be that easy… Kyle had been the first because he was the outsider, but Michael had been the second because he was the toughest. To that adjective he could easily add defensive, distrustful, impulsive, suspicious and lots and lots of other ways of describing Michael’s nature. The guy was a challenge, and Dave had a very distinctive hunch that Michael was not going to add a single piece to this puzzle.

Great part, Misha!

Misha · Post by **Misha** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 11:15 pm

Thanks for coming back to read!

Ti88, I'm not sure if when Dave's secrets come out they are going to be weird, but they sure as hell should be interesting

(or so I hope :P)

Island Breeze, yup, Michael's a puzzle, but in Dave's mind, hardly anything isn't

* * Side Note * * if Dave knew that his interview with Michael is actually chapter 13, he would really laugh at his luck :D

So, here it goes! Michael’s interview

XIII
Hiding

The windows almost trembled. Almost. Michael would have been surprised at how well he was holding in his energy if his attention had been pinned on that. He would have been surprised too if he had known that Dave wasn’t feeling all that safe in that room with him so close to making the windows tremble. Though the room was silent, there was this… tension, he guessed, all around them that made that silence oppressive.

Both men’s eyes remained locked on each other’s. By 7:19 a.m. both had pretty much forgotten their expectations of an easy talk. When Michael had crossed that door fourteen minutes before –and he hadn’t really bothered with checking if he had been exactly on time, thinking that Dave should be thankful he was around the time— Michael had been sending this… coldness. He just couldn’t help it. He had been working himself up since 5:23 a.m. just as badly as he did when he was arguing with an imaginary Maria.

They had both saluted with a short nod, Michael taking the same seat Kyle had taken the day before, Dave putting the piece he had in his right hand over the desk. Kyle hadn’t been joking. It was a huge desk, and the puzzle’s frame was occupying a good part of it. Apparently, Dave had been working on a corner of it, since a large part was already put together. This Michael noticed while quickly scanning the whole room.

It was lightly snowing from what he could see out the windows behind Dave. It was still dark outside and it wouldn’t turn any brighter till around 8:00 a.m. The right wall was bare, with a large cupboard from one corner to the other. On the left wall was this big white square with black numbers on it. What the hell? Then his eyes had returned to Dave, who had been looking straight at him.

“How did they convince you?” Dave had asked without saying anything else. Michael had frowned at him, not sure if he was understanding the question, expecting Dave to be more specific.

“What do you mean?” Michael had replied, his tone defensive.

“I know you don’t want to be here, so I’m wondering why you are actually here.” Michael had been tempted to play with semantics and cynicism and word games –he was just in the right mood for that- but decided against it. He was not going to gain a thing by going in circles. Besides, what was the point in answering anything other than what was being asked?

“They convinced me. That’s all that should matter to you.” So, if Dave knew so much about them, he should know about him not being the talkative type.

“Of course it matters to me—” Dave had started, but Michael had cut him off.

“I bet it does. That way you can have a better idea of how to play with whatever we want.” Michael had been repressing way too many things, frustration evident in his voice. Now that he was having the chance to say exactly what was on his mind to the right person, he was not going to stop.

“Is that what you think? That I’m playing with you?” Dave had asked him in a calm voice, with a slight frown.

Michael had let go a sarcastic laugh, and then returned his eyes to Dave’s. “You played with our fears. You put us in those damned rooms as if we were prisoners, letting us believe the worst had finally come. You kidnapped us in the middle of the night without us being aware of it so we couldn’t have a clue of what was happening. You let us go so we reached the conclusion it was okay, that you were telling us the truth, when in reality we don’t know a thing about anything, much less about you. You keep playing with us,” Michael almost shouted, his eyes burning, “at every turn we make and with whatever we want!”

“I played with your beliefs just to show you that not everyone that is out there to get you means you harm,” Dave answered, still calm, but his voice had gained some volume.

“Bullshit!” This time Michael did shout, barely restraining his energy from blowing up the ceiling’s white lamp. “What the hell do you really want from us?!”

That had been the last question to echo in that room, and that was why they both were now staring at each other, the windows almost trembling behind Dave. Michael was waiting to hear some stupid story, not knowing at all how close Dave actually was to telling him the truth. Actually, Michael would not know that for another eight years.

Just as Jake was getting to know some 130 feet below, Michael was neither a telepath nor a mind reader, because if he had been, he would have clearly read this from Dave: So much for the let’s-avoid-mines theory… Dave leaned over his desk, carefully avoiding his pieces so they wouldn’t end up on the floor, and kept his eyes on Michael’s.

“Why don’t you tell me what exactly I’m after. Tell me why I keep playing with you, because I’m sure that it doesn’t matter what I tell you, you won’t believe me.”

Michael scowled at him. What? Was Dave going to admit whatever came out of Michael’s mouth? Yeah, right… This was a very effective way of not answering, but if Michael could turn this around, he could actually end up with some real answers.

“You want us to feel safe,” Michael started, leaning over the desk, slightly narrowing his eyes. “You want us to believe this was the best thing we could have done.”

Dave smiled. “But you think you aren’t safe and that there is, or at least was, a better option.”

“Don’t play with my words,” Michael said in a deadly tone.

“I’m not. You are right. You aren’t safe Michael, you aren’t safe here, or anywhere on this planet. What you are will hunt you all your life, and you certainly know that better than I do. Now, is this the best thing you could have done? I can’t see the future, so I can’t really answer that.” Dave finished, hardly raising his voice, hardly even blinking.

He was doing it again. Dave was playing with him and Michael was just feeling helpless around this man’s tricks. But since he was being so brutally honest, Michael had nothing to lose.

“If you are all that great, if you knew your offer was so damned great too, then why the hell didn’t you just come one day and tell us that? Why take us in the middle of the night? What the hell were you planning when you did that?”

Dave’s hazel eyes brightened for a second. He was expecting this question and Michael felt uncomfortable at that thought. It was as if Dave already knew what Michael was thinking, and the thought of being known so damned well wasn’t a nice one. Especially to Michael.

Dave leaned back in his chair. “I thought about forty-three scenarios for our first meeting, that is, the whole group and myself. I went over and over all of them in my head for months trying to decipher how to approach you all. How to earn your trust, how to take you off the roads. And trust me, it wasn’t easy. And do you know what the most difficult part was? You.” Dave said, with a very slight smile.

“What?” Michael said in that curt way of his.

“Out of everyone in your group… Are you really not going to tell me how they convinced you to accept my offer?” Dave asked in a good natured way, but was greeted with what Jake would have called “the mother of all icebergs”, and a look that clearly said “don’t push it”.

“You haven’t answered my question,” Michael said, his muscles rigid, the tension returning to the air. He was in no mood for good natured questions. Hell, not even for good natured answers, if it came to that.

“No, I haven’t,” Dave said, standing up to reach for a piece. “You are all like these pieces, these few pieces that don’t make sense, either alone or put together.” Dave started to say, not looking at Michael at all. “When I first found out about you, I was fascinated. But you were just kids. You had lives of your own. So I just watched you from afar. And all that time I was wondering, ‘What would happen to these kids if someone else find out?’ And the answer was never pretty.”

“So you just appointed yourself as our Guardian Angel? How thoughtful…” Michael said with more than just an edge of sarcasm. Dave was deliberately striding away from the point, and Michael had no intention on letting him off the hook. However, this time, Dave did look up from his pieces, and as usual, smiled.

“I was more like a shadow. But you see Michael, shadows can learn if they stay long enough. And when I found out that you had run for your lives that night, I knew that my chances of ever meeting you had pretty much been reduced to zero. You wouldn’t trust anyone outside your group.”

“What makes you think we trust you now?” Michael asked, half annoyed, half daring.

“You are here, aren’t you?” Dave answered back, earning a long ago patented Michael scowl. He was pushing too much.

Dave took another piece. “I took you in the middle of the night because I needed you to know how easy it could happen. How easy it was for someone like me to track you down and make you disappear.”

“We have already been caught.” Max’s words echoed in Michael’s head, words that had been said in a Suburban at 1:00 a.m. only three days ago, “That was the whole point of keeping us apart, as if we were in a real prison, so we could know it can happen to us; that we are sitting ducks like you said.”

“You were kept apart so you could really taste the fear of being alone. I could have made it worse, haven’t you thought about that?” This time Dave’s tone was… darker. A tone that made Michael’s skin crawl. “I could have kept you apart for miles and not let you know the others were okay for months. I could have isolated you. I could have threatened you into accepting the offer.”

“But you were playing with us all the time,” Michael said with a confidence he was not exactly completely feeling, but with an anger that was 100% there.

Dave stayed still, not leaving Michael’s eyes. “Yes Michael, I was playing with you,” Dave admitted, his tone serene, serious. “I was playing every trick I could think of so you would accept. As you had said, I had this great offer, but I couldn’t really back it up. You had never heard about me, you had no intention of trusting anyone. So I had to prove, or to at least try to prove, that with all I could have done to you, I still wanted you to accept out of free will, that I was telling the truth. If you decided to leave, you already had a glimpse of what would happen to you out there if you were caught. But if you stayed, then you just might be safe with me.”

And it had worked. Max had believed him. Liz had believed him. Hell, they all had, and had convinced Michael into believing in him too. And Michael had to admit that so far, Dave had pretty much backed his side of the offer. But for how long? And still, there was that unanswered question hanging in the air.

“Why?” Michael asked, breaking the silence that had momentarily fallen over them again. “Why do you want us?”

“I’ve already told you that on Saturday,” Dave said, his eyes dropping to his puzzle, tirelessly searching. “I want to study you.”

“Yeah, right,” Michael said, not believing one word of Dave’s last statement. Just like Max, Michael could feel something was wrong, just not as strongly as his best friend did. It was a feeling born out of his distrustful nature. All the same, both Max and Michael knew there was something else that Dave wanted. “That’s just not enough. You want something else.”

“Not enough?” Dave said, astonished –or at least feigning he was astonished- and placing both his hands on the desk, he pinned Michael with his eyes. “Do you have any idea what you represent?” Michael blinked, Dave’s serious and bewildering tone had taken him aback. That didn’t sound fake.

When silence was Michael’s answer, Dave slightly shook his head. “Where do I start?” Dave murmured more to himself than to Michael. “It is not entirely the fact that you are part alien, Michael, but that you are part human too. You are advanced humans. Do you know what that means for the study of our future selves? Neurology alone would write entire libraries just by what you can do. ‘Mind over matter’ would take a completely different meaning. Your DNA structure has all these infinite possibilities not just in Biology, but possibly in the medical field. You are clones too. Heck, we are happy we can clone mice, when you are living proof that one can clone entire lives, memories and personalities. And speaking of clones, you are hybrids, two entirely different and unrelated species perfectly mixed into one, perfectly functioning... And I can go on and on Michael. So let me know what exactly your definition of ‘not enough’ is, so I’ll see what I can do about it.”

Three seconds passed before Michael answered in a very confused and somehow outraged tone, “you want to profit from us?”

To Michael’s surprise, Dave laughed, all seriousness gone, which actually made Michael feel even more annoyed at this situation, at this man who kept playing with every word he said and with every movement he made.

“Not everything is money in life, Michael,” Dave said, sitting, his serious tone returning, just a little bit less, well, serious. “I have had only one love in this life, Michael, and that is knowledge. Yes, I made a living out of it, but that’s just a secondary effect. Ignorance is our worst enemy. So, you see, you are really valuable to me because I can learn so much from you.”

Michael wasn’t convinced. There was still something off in here, but he couldn’t place it. Dave was very convincing, he had to give the man credit for that, but…

“And speaking of learning,” Dave cut off Michael’s train of thought, “I met Mrs. Dunlop.”

Michael’s train of thought collapsed into one of the worst train disasters in Michael’s mind.

“What did you say?” He slowly, quietly, asked. He could feel his muscles tensing even more, and knew that those windows were not going to stay in place for very long now.

Mrs. Dunlop was an old lady that lived at the Old Chisholm Trail Trailer Park. She had been the only decent person in that place, and had taken some care of him, even babysitting him a few times when Hank had been away for too long or just way too drunk to take care of a seven-year old. She had an incredible book collection. That was, incredible for the tiny trailer she lived in. It was because of her that Michael had learned the value of lecture, and books. Before Max and Isabel had finally come into his life, Michael had spent a lot of afternoons with one or another of Mrs. Dunlop’s books. She hadn’t exactly lent them to him, but she had never missed a single one when he had taken them.

It was in Mrs. Dunlop’s collection that Michael had found out all about the Roswell Incident. She had told him once that it was only natural she had all those “conspiracy” books since they lived in the town that had seen aliens running in the streets. She was also subscribed to three different UFO magazines, and by the age of eight, Michael was eagerly awaiting those every single month. Even when he had been fifteen years old, he had still waited for them.

But once he had moved out of the trailer park, he had never returned. A tiny part of him felt a little bit guilty for not visiting her, but they weren’t all that close, he argued to himself. Besides, Mrs. Dunlop was friends with everyone in that place, so she hadn’t exactly been heart broken by his departure, much less stayed all alone and by herself.

Still, Mrs. Dunlop had made life in that hell bearable during his childhood, and Michael did thank her for that. He could still remember the first time he had “borrowed” Ulysses from her bookshelf. The only good memories he had from those years when he had been all alone on this planet came from that trailer, that bookshelf, and those books.

“She’s a really interesting person,” Dave said, starting again with his puzzle. Kyle had also been right about the fact that it was freaking maddening to see that man so absorbed in that stupid thing.

“What did you do to her?” Michael’s tone gained volume, and it was not going to take much time before he started shouting again. He was truly barely under control.

“I had a nice chat with her.”

“You told Kyle you had never been in Roswell.”

“And I was telling the truth. I made her win a trip to Florida. I met her on the plane.” Dave didn’t look up to him, his eyes scouting for the next piece, his fingers flipping and flipping face up each tiny part of the puzzle.

“Why?” Michael asked cautiously. Suddenly this man seemed more dangerous now than at any other time since they had met him. How much did he know? How had he known about Mrs. Dunlop in the first place?

“Because I needed answers to your past. You were the most difficult one to get to know. Didn’t you wonder why all those books were in your room?”

Um…no. He had been too absorbed in how to get out of there and in the well-being of all the others to actually think why these people knew about those books. And even if he had done that, he would have probably not seen the connection between those books and Mrs. Dunlop. Sure enough, despite whatever Isabel had said, he did go to the Public Library, so the books would have had his name on the library cards. It was a no-braniac trail to follow.

“How did you find out about her?” Michael didn’t lose his cautiousness –something Max would have been really proud of- but somehow felt vulnerable. Infinitely powerless in front of this man that seemed to know just about everything there was to know about them. But if that was the case, why was he having this conversation? In that instant Michael realized just how much Dave could know but still how much there was that he didn’t know. Why? Why had this man been able to trace an old woman in a trailer park but hadn’t known about all that Kyle had told him just yesterday? Even if Dave still looked dangerous to him, he had lost all his omnipresence in that room. Though this man was powerful, he still was just that: A man.

“We visited your old place. Stayed around for a couple of months, too.” Dave said with pride, a kid being proud for doing a particularly difficult assignment well.

“We?”

“My crew and myself. Well, I just read the reports, but three of my men rented spaces there, finally found her. You have to be very cautious when you want to know about someone and don’t want anyone knowing that you want that information. So, to casually inquire about you was an extremely difficult task. You weren’t exactly the friendly type when you lived there. In fact, most people thought that you were either dead, or in jail, or had died in jail.”

“I bet…” Michael said coldly. Dave had sent men to live there? And what about Kyle? What about those 14 or 15 cars Dave had told him he had sent to Toby’s place? “You sent people all over Roswell looking for pieces of our past?” Michael asked leaning over the desk. So this was why he knew about their early lives, but not about their real lives now… the picture was coming into focus now for Michael.

“Of course I did. The new Janitor a year and a half ago. Mr. Evans’ new secretary around the same time. Maria’s new neighbors a year ago. The new transfer kid in Freshman year… She was damned convincing, you know?” Michael frowned, his brain speeding. What kid? When?

Dave seemed to know exactly why Michael was confused, and continued. “Last year, when you were Seniors. It’s a really useful thing that older kids never notice the younger ones. She made up this story about having the biggest crush in history first on you and then on Max. Gave her free pass to all knowledge about you. It was only natural her new friends would help her out with rumors and gossips.”

“You recruited a teenage girl?” Michael said, not entirely unconvinced. He had no doubt this man was capable of that. If he remembered correctly, Maria’s new neighbors had five-year old hurricane twins. Not exactly your average spies…

“Hell, I would like to find more people like her, to tell you the truth. It’s not common, but teenaged people have this stereotype about not being reliable or even capable of doing important things like, let’s say, espionage, which makes them perfect for the occasion. I never went to high school, but from what I’ve heard, that place is the perfect training ground for that kind of thing. And the gossip networks… the FBI, NSA, CIA and all the letters of the alphabet should envy not only the files those people keep on each other, but the speed with which information can be sent and obtained.”

“I’ve never really cared about rumors,” Michael said dismissively, thinking that Dave’s attempt at humor was even worse than Kyle’s.

“Exactly. That’s why neither of you found out about her in the first place. But what were you doing instead of listening to high school gossips? What were you doing in Sophmore year or when you were Juniors?”

“Why don’t you tell me? You seem to know everything about us,” Michael said in that cold voice that had apparently set on his vocal cords.

Dave smiled. A knowing smile. Again, Michael had the feeling that Dave had just known he was going to ask about that. And again he didn’t like it.

“You already know I don’t,” Dave said, forgetting about his puzzle for once. “I did my homework as well as I could, but there are things that were beyond other people’s knowledge. I researched about your lives as other people knew them. I not only met with Mrs. Dunlop, but with more people that you probably won’t even remember.”

“You want me to believe that you spent all those resources tracking down other people but that you didn’t have anyone on our tail all the time? How the hell did you find us in Colorado in the first place? Asking directions?”

It could have been Michael’s imagination, but he would have sworn that Dave’s eyes had turned a shade darker. He was used to seeing Liz’s eyes changing shades depending on her mood, so he didn’t really dismiss Dave’s change either. Something in his last words had touched a chord inside that man’s head.

“I wish it had been that easy,” Dave enigmatically answered. “As much as I wanted to ‘tail’ you, as you put it, it was too much of a risk. I could have put a team on you 24/7, that’s true, but that would have let others know about my… interest in you. Leaks happen, you know? And since I know all about leaks and informants and, well, espionage, I didn’t want to risk someone else finding out about you.

“But on the other hand,” Dave continued, “I could put separate teams, unrelated people to research about the people who had known you. It was still risky, but it was better than nothing. And then you just disappeared in the middle of the night. That truly took me by surprise.”

“How could you not know about the Special Unit?” Michael asked abruptly. “Why did you take so long to present yourself? If you are such an altruistic person, how can you explain that?” Michael was angry now. He could somehow sense Dave holding back, holding something important back, and he didn’t like it. So he was now trying to put Dave against the wall –in a figurative way, of course- trying to trick him into actually telling him the truth.

“The Special Unit was a big mistake, I do recognize that. I thought it was over, that the agents that still remained didn’t have the resources to keep tracking you down. Now, the military base was your mistake. They wouldn’t have gotten the resources if it hadn’t been for the Army.”

“We didn’t know Tess was going to blow up the base,” Michael said exasperated, for the first time lowering his eyes before Dave.

“She had lost her son. You didn’t know her well enough to think she would avenge him?”

Michael tried to not look surprised at that. Of course Kyle had already spread the story. Max’s son had died during an altercation with the Army, and Tess had decided to blow up the base. If that had actually happened, Michael wasn’t sure if Max wouldn’t have helped Tess out on that one.

“It happened too fast,” Michael quietly said. “We didn’t have time to react… Tess just came out of nowhere, bringing the Army behind her and Zan… It was just too fast… Next thing we knew, Zan was gone and so was Tess. When the base blew up, we didn’t have any doubt about what had happened.” Michael finished, hoping that would be enough.

“How did Max take it? Didn’t he want to blow up the base too?”

“We all did,” Michael answered, a little bit surprised at how true his words were. The anger in his voice helped tons with sounding convincing too. “We grieved for a while, but I guess it was for the best. Our lives just became a wreck after that, living on the road. That was no life for a child. Besides, running with a baby would have been just chaotic… pretty much impossible.” That was a very cold thing to say, Michael reflected, even for himself. But it was also the truth, and why Max had decided to give Zan away as well. They, and Zan, had way better chances of staying alive without each other.

“That is true,” Dave quietly reflected from his side of the desk. Actually, he remained quiet for some time too. Enough to make Michael start to feel really uncomfortable in that place. His eyes started to divert from Dave’s fingers to the windows behind, then to the cupboard to the left and, finally, to the numbers on the right. There was something odd with those numbers, Michael noticed. He could sense there was a pattern, but he couldn’t place it. It was like the time he had –or had thought he had- deciphered the map in the cave. He knew there was a code, if he could only break it.

“Do you like numbers, Michael?” Dave suddenly asked, Michael turning his head in a second to look at the man, trying to not look as if he had been caught.

“Didn’t see my report card?” Michael defiantly answered. Dave gave him a broad smile.

“Of course I did. As many things with all of you, it didn’t make sense.” Michael frowned; Dave leaned back in his chair, leaving his pieces for a while. “You didn’t take any test seriously, that is, when you actually took them, all High School. And then, all of the sudden, you want to attend Biology your senior year. You also wanted to take regular attendance to your other classes… For someone who doesn’t give a damn about school, as your grades would suggest, you made the teachers talk quite a bit when you started to show up.”

Dave’s comments were making Michael wonder again exactly how much this man really knew about them and what had happened. Hadn’t Kyle already told him that they had almost left the planet two years ago? It couldn’t take a genius to decipher that Michael had been planning on leaving, and once stranded here, well…

“Besides, why would someone who has read the kind of books you’ve read not take school at least slightly seriously? That is, before senior year…”

“That is no mystery,” Michael said dismissively again. Maybe what Dave was doing was comparing both stories to see how similar or different they were. “I knew beyond a doubt that there was no future off of this God forsaken planet for me once the ship left.” He had also deliberately avoided saying the “Granolith”, more out of instinct than of reason. “Once I was stuck here, I figured I needed to attend school on a more regular base,” Michael finished with a little sarcasm.

“But things kept happening, didn’t they?” Dave asked, still leaning against the back of the chair. “Because for someone who has realized he has to make a future on this God forsaken planet, you still flunked out. But,” Dave said raising a hand before Michael could say anything, “this time, you did take the tests seriously. So seriously that half of your teachers thought you were cheating.”

Michael narrowed his eyes, more at the memory than at Dave’s words. It was true. He had taken some tests twice –not gladly- just to prove he knew the answers. Stupid things that anyone should know, for crying out loud. Of course, if Max hadn’t expected him to know the meaning of ephemeral, how could he expect those idiots he had for teachers to accept he had studied?

All the same, it wasn’t that he didn’t know, it was that he wasn’t showing up for the tests to begin with. Not only were there unexpected things like Khivar in California, or Maria dumping him, or Max dying, but he also had two jobs to keep, friends to pass time with and last but not least, the whole Jesse thing. By the time Tess had crashed, he had pretty much known there was no chance at all he was graduating that year. So, while Max had been studying with Liz, he had had all the time in the world to investigate… Just as Dave had said a minute ago, things kept happening, and school was just not at the top of his priorities.

Michael just scowled. He knew Dave was expecting him to tell him what exactly those keep-happening-things were, and Michael was just not that easy on giving answers.

“I cheated on my tests too,” Dave said lowering his voice a little, leaning over the desk.

“I didn’t cheat on those,” Michael said even in a lower tone, angry. Why did people think he couldn’t do that without cheating? Dave smiled a different smile this time. It was one of someone who is remembering something funny.

“I failed every single test I took just to piss people off.” What? Michael stared at Dave, who stared at him back. “You see, there are more uses for cheating than to just pass. You could have passed those tests, all by yourself, but you didn’t care to. You cheated, because you weren’t telling all you knew. I cheated, because I didn’t want them to know how much I knew as well.”

Where was Dave going? Was he going to said “so, you see, we are not that different after all?” Please…

“I thought you had said you hadn’t gone to High School.” Michael said out of the blue. His memory could impress him sometimes.

“That doesn’t mean I didn’t take tests…” Dave said in an even darker tone now than the one he had used before. “You were smart in keeping things to you. I admire that trait. I mean, from you, I can understand it, but from Max and Isabel… why didn’t they tell their parents at the first chance? Or anyone? How exciting must it have been to find out you could do these things that no one else could, and yet not tell a soul…”

“It isn’t that great…” Michael let the comment slip, and mentally slapped himself for it. Was he feeling comfortable now? Stupid mistake. He didn’t continue the sentence, and Dave didn’t press him either. Silence fell over them for the third time in half an hour.

Michael’s eyes diverted again to anywhere but the man seated in front of him. To the cupboard, to the windows, to the numbers. Anything but Dave’s eyes.

“How do you build something like this and keep it secret?” Michael finally found something to ask, something to take the conversation somewhere else but his powers. Dave didn’t seem to mind Michael’s change of subject, a man who knew his answers would come sooner or later.

“You don’t. I mean, you don’t build it. You make others build it, then you make others buy it under the name of yet other people. Then you make other people come and rebuild it, thinking they are working for the first people who built it. Then— Well, it’s tricky, and it takes time… but once everything is done, you keep it to yourself, just like your abilities, I guess. You don’t tell a soul.”

“You have just told me,” Michael said, almost daring him.

“Oh, yes. And everyone who works and lives in this place also know about it.” Michael blinked. Of course he had thought about all these people down here, but he hadn’t been all that interested in them to begin with. “It’s all a matter of perspective. Why they are here is a whole different reason from why you are here, but they do want this place to continue being their home and work place. Once they finish their projects, they are usually placed in other places where they want to be, and have no interest in revealing this place. Their silence is better than answering rightly to other people’s questions. Just like the tests we both avoided, it’s better to let people think that we don’t know.”

So, how many things was Dave feigning ignorance about? And why was he telling Michael in such an open way that Dave was so used to lying and “cheating”? It wasn’t doing wonders on the trust-in-me side of the list.

“How did Maria find about you?” Dave asked Michael, the question mentally shaking his thoughts. Michael tensed at the mention of Maria’s name. “I mean, I know the risks of keeping this place secret, but I can only imagine what the risks of keeping your secret are.”

“Liz told her,” he dryly said.

“And Liz found out because Max saved her… Why did he tell her the truth?”

“Because he’s Max,” Michael curtly answered. He didn’t like where this conversation was going. In fact, he didn’t like talking about them at all. And now that he was thinking about it, what would Dave do if he just stood up and walked away? Kick them out of the complex?

“Why did Maria stay?”

“Where else was she going to go?” Michael answered, shrugging. The idea of just executing his latest thought was coming into shape in his mind.

“So, why did you stay?”

“You know, I’m thinking exactly the same thing, why am I staying in here?”

“Oh, that I know,” Dave said with a genuine, ear to ear smile. “You are hoping I’ll give you more answers, trick me into telling things you think I’m keeping from you, and finding out how you can leave this place without me tailing you this time around.” Michael blinked, feeling stone frozen in time. Dave wasn’t joking. Dave knew.

“You see Michael, you and I have some things in common, but in general, we’d go different ways. And because we don’t know each other, we are trying to anticipate each other’s moves. I’m used to people trying to trick me and I’m used to tricking people as well. But I don’t want to trick you. I’m being this honest with you because if you decide to leave, not this office but my domains, we both lose.”

“Really?” Michael asked sarcastically. Like hell Dave’s life was on the stake here.

“Really,” Dave simply answered, not giving him a long speech or reason. Just that one word.

“Why do you care if we are caught or not? Why do you care what happens to us out there?” Michael asked in a calm voice, genuinely curious and a little bit startled by Dave’s very honest answer. What startled Michael even more was Dave’s silence. The man had just dropped his eyes to the floor, thinking. He didn’t have an immediate comment for this question. Maybe he just hadn’t anticipated this question, as he had seemed to have done with everything Michael had asked him so far.

“I don’t know,” Dave finally answered, arching his eyebrows, his eyes lost in some point in the air. “I mean, I do care, I just don’t know why,” he said more to himself than for Michael’s ears. “Why do you care about Maria? Why didn’t you just take off the first night Liz found out about the truth? Why didn’t you knock some sense into Max about telling her anything but the truth? Why did they convince you to accept my offer when you know so well that you don’t know a thing about me?”

Michael tried to open his mouth in an attempt to answer him, but the words didn’t come. He made another attempt, and this time, the ideas didn’t come. They both just stared at each other.

“You are crazy,” Michael simply answered after a whole minute had passed. Dave almost laughed at that comment.

“I guess I am,” he said shrugging, “but we both have questions, so we both have to give answers,” he ended, finally breaking the first wall of ice that Michael had set off. But just the first. Michael had plenty of those right in place.

So, for the next four hours not much was really said between the two of them, who had consciously accepted play in this game of tricky questions and half answers and enigmatic comments. Though Michael had never met someone like Dave, deep inside of him, very deep inside of him, Michael had a sense of familiarity. As if he had done this many times before with many other people. A verbal chess game, one where there was no real winner, just a feeling of getting to know more than what had been given in the first place.

All the same, Michael had the distinct feeling that all along Dave had been playing with him on a superior level. The funny thing was that Dave had truly been playing with him in more ways than Michael could have thought possible. And if Michael could have had even the slightest peek into that man’s mind, he would have seen that Dave truly knew the meaning of how to use half truths when you were lying.

* * *

Isabel moved her hand to one side, almost in a gesture of greeting. They –Jake, Max and her- were now in the same room where they had been playing car games the day before, except that now the screen held a very different image than the one of the racing cars. Now it was an image of themselves, or more likely, the heat image of themselves. She was looking at her own figure all in shades of reds, oranges and yellows, and she had moved her hand just to see if the hand on the screen would move as well. It did.

“You know,” Jake said, as he was staring at the same screen, “it never ceases to amaze me how alike we both are.”

“Well, we are humans too,” Isabel answered, dropping her hand. It was her, alright…

“Of course you are, but just half. Look at our images, there’s no difference. And every cell of your body is as different from mine as day is from night. That’s what amazes me.”

“You thought we would look different?” Max slowly asked. In fact, Max had gotten that quiet tone that he only used when he was very uncomfortable talking about something.

“I was expecting it, sure. But then again, I was expecting a lot of things,” Jake said while changing the picture. Isabel and Max exchanged questioning looks with each other. What did Jake mean with that last comment?

The image did change. It was the three of them again, but instead of warm colors, they were now all in blues, light blues and whites.

“Now, this is different,” Jake said, looking at the picture and then turning to them. It was different in the fact that, though Jake was covered in different shades of blues, Max and Isabel’s blues were really vivid, and white on the edges.

“What is that? Ultraviolet?” Max asked, looking at his own hand and then back to the screen, almost as if he were expecting to see blue around himself.

Jake smiled. “Though it would be interesting to see how insects see you, nope. This is something we got from the Russians like a decade ago. We’ve been working on it ever since.”

They both looked at Jake, expectant. “So, what is it?” Max asked.

“Energy, synergy, aura, psychic vibrations… called it whatever you want, no one really knows. In the 60’s, the Russians had an advanced project on psychic abilities, and developed the ancestor of this camera,” Jake said pointing to the screen. “They performed experiments with this woman who had the ability of telekinesis. So they took one picture of her hands, then she did her thing, and when they took the picture again, her hands would look a little like you do right now. She changed the energy –or whatever it is- around her hands.”

“But we are not changing anything right now,” Isabel said, frowning.

“Well, a decade of working did pay off. You see, the reason why the Russians’ camera didn’t get a Nobel Prize or anything was because you could take a picture of an apple, and it would look exactly like the picture of anyone’s hands. And everybody knows that an apple can’t have mental abilities… No psychic energy or anything… Besides, no one wanted to believe in such things openly. But,” Jake said looking closer at the screen, “it was taking pictures of something. We refined the lens, to put it in words, but we still don’t know what exactly we are photographing.”

“We?” Max asked, looking at the ceiling, almost as if expecting to find a group of people looking at them from there.

“Some other people who would be gagging right now if they could see this picture,” Jake said laughing. “And to answer your question,” he said looking at Isabel, “you are not changing anything, but you have all the potential to do it.”

“So this camera takes pictures of how capable one person is of having psychic abilities?” Max said, looking back at his own image.

“Why not?” Jake said, shrugging, “we have taken pictures from nails to horses, from idiots to geniuses, and I have never seen one picture with such vivid colors as yours.” Jake pressed another button from his remote control and the screen went blank.

“I was planning on showing this yesterday, but you know how yesterday went. I don’t like excluding Michael on this one though, so we’ll have the same explanation tomorrow morning, okay?”

Michael. Isabel felt a shiver running through all her spine. Though she would have more faith in Michael’s acts than Max on any given day, that didn’t mean she was 100% sure everything was okay up there in Dave’s office. She had expected something to happen for the past three hours. Either it being Jake’s G.E.S. beeping, a cell phone ringing, or an entire alarm system going off through all the corridors of this place. But so far, nothing.

Well, didn’t they say that “no news was good news”? Isabel sighed, for an instant making eye contact with Max. Her brother gave her the slightest smile in a reassuring way, clearly thinking the same as she had at the mention of Michael’s name.

“So, you are recording all the time?” Max addressed the… was it doctor? Almost two entire sessions had gone by and they still had no clue what kind of doctor Jake was.

“In these rooms every time there’s movement. The cameras activate themselves. No point in losing battery or energy. It’s a good thing there aren’t insects or it would be pretty boring to see the record of a fly passing through on the screen,” Jake joked, and though they didn’t exactly laugh, they did manage to smile. It wasn’t that Jake was trying to be funny, but just that this was the way he talked.

All the same, Isabel had to give credit to these people on knowing how to keep this place neat. Nothing was out of place. Not in the corridors, not in Jake’s office, not in this room. Jake kept telling them about the rooms, but so far, this was the only they had seen. A white glass door separated it from whatever was on the other side. Yet, she knew that Jake was waiting for Michael to show them. She just hoped that the showing would happen tomorrow, because her imagination wasn’t exactly friendly with her thought about what was there.

For a second, an image of six men in lab coats watching them through the white glass passed through her mind, a reminiscence of Max’s act of watching the ceiling. She shook the thought off. It was doing nothing good for her. And God, she wanted everything to work out.

“Are you hungry?” Jake asked, checking the hour on his watch. She did the same. It was 10:49. She wasn’t hungry, but she was thirsty. They had talked ever since they had arrived, and that Cherry Coke from 7:00 a.m. had been long ago finished. And, by the way, the only new place they had seen this day had been the bathroom, which was at the very opposite side of the white glass door. There had been nothing remarkable or outstanding about it. Your ordinary –if very large- office bathroom.

“I wouldn’t mind another Cherry Coke,” Max said, trying to sound normal. Trying even harder to not look uncomfortable. She couldn’t really blame him. Talking about their powers was one of the weirdest things to do, no matter what they had agreed upon.

Almost as if Jake could read her thoughts, when they were walking out to get the sodas out of his mini-fridge, he asked out loud, “You know, you don’t really have to tell me, but I would love to hear how you got to discover your abilities. What was it like when you were kids?”

Talking about their powers was one of the weirdest things because they barely talked about them. Not with other people, but within themselves. When they were growing, for Max and Isabel it was like, if you didn’t say a thing about it, then you could pretend it didn’t exist. Michael couldn’t control them, and was pissed off at the fact. Besides, there was the risk of being overheard.

So, those early years of discovery had been… well, a sort of excitement mixed with fear. By the time they were teenagers, they hardly talked about anything alien related, in part because they were scared of it, and in part because they didn’t really put much use to their powers. Max was always giving her these looks of “you are doing it again”, every time she did something in front of him, that he just spoiled the little joy she could find in them. But that had changed with Tess’s arrival and their message from home. They were getting stronger, and whether they wanted to admit it or not, that also scared them big time. Michael had gotten the better deal out of it though, because he had finally managed to gain control over his energy, leveling with her and Max. Of course, to get Tess’s level they would need years of practice…

“Well, it was…” Max started, glancing at her, crying for help with his look. It wasn’t that they couldn’t talk about this, it was just… How do you talk about something you had never really talked about because you feared for your life? Start with the beginning? Jake passed them the sodas, expectant.

“It just happened…” Isabel tried to elaborate. “I wanted my dress to be light blue instead of pink, and it would start to change, so I would just stop wishing it before Mom noticed…”

“Or we would want to… I don’t know, get a cookie and it would just move towards us,” Max reflected, “We were just kids, doing silly stuff.”

“But you weren’t silly kids, that’s for sure. You didn’t go showing off… did you?” Jake asked, now opening some chips he had also brought with him from the cupboard, signaling with his hand if they wanted something. Both siblings declined.

Still, a question was pending in the air. They both thought about it for a second. “Everything was new,” Isabel said, remembering her first memories. Fuzzy memories. “And we had to learn so much so fast, because all the other kids were doing all the things kids our age were supposed to do…”

“But soon we sort of realized that there were things they weren’t doing…” Max said, sort of fidgeting with his own fingers, watching as Jake gave a last look to the cupboard. “I mean, by the time we actually started doing things, we knew the others weren’t. We just kept it a secret… Half of the time we even kept it a secret from each other.”

Those had been some very scary years, Isabel reflected. Where had Michael been, to begin with? Where was the other kid, the other one that was like them? She had known just as strongly as Max had known that Michael was out there, and that they belonged together. Every kid they had met, they had hoped… It hadn’t been till they were almost eight that things had started to happen. By that time they were conscious enough of their surroundings and what people expected. Especially what their parents expected. And changing colors and moving cookies wasn’t on the list. So many things weren’t on that list…

“So, you pretty much developed your abilities by yourselves? I mean, individually?” Jake asked, raising an eyebrow at Max’s latest comment, the three of them still standing.

Max took a deep breath, almost as if preparing for a long speech. “Well, it was more like… I would do something, and try to do it again. If I could do it again, then I would tell Isabel and she would try it… but when we were kids, not much really happened…”

“Your parents never caught you when you were kids?” Jake asked, indicating that they should go to the living room, his eyes bright with enthusiasm. But did Jake know that they had actually been caught by their parents not even a year ago?

“I don’t know why they didn’t…” Max said, sitting on the larger sofa, Isabel sitting at his right. Jake took the other sofa, at their left. “I mean, it wasn’t that we did anything often, but they could have caught us.”

“I’m sure Mom had her suspicions. It all started with that video…” and of course, that comment had to be elaborated. Jake was almost done with his chips by the time he had finished asking about the incident, and they had finished telling him everything they could recall.

“It must have been tough on you,” Jake said sympathetically. “I mean, not only keeping those things secret, but to adjust and all. Like you said, to live up to the standards of everyone else.”

They both nodded. It was around 11:20 a.m. by now, and so far, no explosions had been heard down here. Was Michael still up there? Isabel was feeling uneasiness now. She didn’t like one of their own out of her range, to put it in words.

“So, what is it like? To heal?” Jake asked. Both Evans swallowed hard. They had pretty much avoided the subject of unique powers, and had omitted her dreamwalking and Michael’s very efficient destructive technique… And Tess’ mindwarps, of course… But the main reason for them avoiding the subject was that Max couldn’t allow Jake to know what happened to someone he had healed… those changes could not be seen in a lab. How were they going to convince the man in front of them that Max shouldn’t heal a thing? “You said you didn’t know you were healing the pigeon, but you must have felt something…”

Max took his time to think this one through, almost as if he were deciding every single word he was going to use. Probably he had done so every night since they had arrived here… “It’s like…” Max started, still thoughtful. Then, shrugging a little, he looked at Jake, “Water, like a flow. I can feel the flow, and when something’s is not right, the flow is… disrupted I guess… I remember thinking that when I touched that bird, that it was disrupted…”

Isabel looked at her brother. Max had never really told her how it… felt… to heal, just how tired he got after healing. It wasn’t as if she had told him how it felt to dreamwalk either, now that she was thinking about it. When Max had said half of the time they kept their powers to each other, and later on told the other, it was like, “hey, I did this, can you?” but there wasn’t any how they had done it. Though half of those times, their little experiments ended up with something blowing… and blowing things did feel like disrupting something…

“And when you touched the bird, or when you heal someone now, you put that flow back in place?”

“It isn’t that easy…” Max said with a dark tone. Jake caught the intention, and frowned. “In order to put that flow in place, I have to… well, it feels as if I have to use my own flow to re-direct the other person’s. I didn’t feel that with the pigeon, but I did when I saved Liz, and every other person I have healed after that. And that feeling… It drains me.”

“It exhausts you?” Jake tentatively asked.

“Usually, but last time I tried it, it killed me.”

Isabel felt cold. The idea of losing Max –or Michael for that matter- was one that plagued her nightmares. One of her worst fears. And it had happened. She had been shot and had been fighting for her life, so there wasn’t much to remember about that, but for the brief minutes between Valenti getting out of that fire telling them Max was dead and the actual shooting… that feeling had killed her inside. If Max had truly been dead… she didn’t even want to think about how things would have been for them now.

Jake was silent for a few seconds. “You mean it literally killed you?”

Max nodded. “And it is something I’m not going to do again.”

It wasn’t till 12:30 pm that they finally left the place, Jake still wanting to keep discussing the whole “transferring” thing, even trying to see a way of healing without Max ending dead –something Max refused to do no matter what.

“Do you think he’ll find a way to convince you?” Isabel asked as they were waiting for the elevator.

“Not a chance in hell,” Max seriously said, “if he finds out about…” The doors opened, showing a deserted inside. Max didn’t have to elaborate about what he was afraid Jake might find out. Beginning with Liz, continuing with Kyle, and probably ending with who knew what kind of experiments.

But Isabel was till unsure. Maybe she had asked the wrong question. What if Jake found a way to obligate Max into healing? How long could they keep things hidden from these people?

TBC

Post by **Island Breeze** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 12:49 am

Great chapter! :D I loved how Dave was not feeling all that safe...

The windows almost trembled. Almost. Michael would have been surprised at how well he was holding in his energy if his attention had been pinned on that. He would have been surprised too if he had known that Dave wasn’t feeling all that safe in that room with him so close to making the windows tremble. Though the room was silent, there was this… tension, he guessed, all around them that made that silence oppressive.

Hehe!

And this was an interesting point:

Dave took another piece. “I took you in the middle of the night because I needed you to know how easy it could happen. How easy it was for someone like me to track you down and make you disappear.”

Then when Dave was telling Michael why knowing about him was important... That was really interesting!

“It is not entirely the fact that you are part alien, Michael, but that you are part human too. You are advanced humans. Do you know what that means for the study of our future selves? Neurology alone would write entire libraries just by what you can do. ‘Mind over matter’ would take a completely different meaning. Your DNA structure has all these infinite possibilities not just in Biology, but possibly in the medical field. You are clones too. Heck, we are happy we can clone mice, when you are living proof that one can clone entire lives, memories and personalities. And speaking of clones, you are hybrids, two entirely different and unrelated species perfectly mixed into one, perfectly functioning... And I can go on and on Michael. So let me know what exactly your definition of ‘not enough’ is, so I’ll see what I can do about it.”

And I was impressed by the story about Mrs. Dunlop...

Still, Mrs. Dunlop had made life in that hell bearable during his childhood, and Michael did thank her for that. He could still remember the first time he had “borrowed” Ulysses from her bookshelf. The only good memories he had from those years when he had been all alone on this planet came from that trailer, that bookshelf, and those books.

But this last line just sounds a little ominous to me:

But Isabel was till unsure. Maybe she had asked the wrong question. What if Jake found a way to obligate Max into healing? How long could they keep things hidden from these people?

That was a great part, Misha! I enjoyed that!

Post by **Ti88** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 12:56 am

great new part.

Actually, Michael would not know that for another eight years.

is that to mean our friends will be there for at least that long? and i have to give michael props. he did not have a melt down. so max refuses to heal. ok. right. i know maria hasn't been healed but i would love to see a picture taken of her. you know the whole vibing vibrating thing.

Misha · Post by **Misha** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 10:05 pm

Thanks for coming back to read!

Island Breeze, thanks for the double feedback! Nope, Dave wasn't feeling all that safe, but that is something the pod squad didn't know... Mrs. Dunlop story was to cover at least one aspect that has always intrigued me about Michael: Why did he know about Ulysses, and so damn well too? And why he was reading UFO magazines by the age of 8, as he said in Summer of '47?

Ti88, that would be interesting, Maria at Jake's Lab... but why would be she be there in the first place???

And well, here's a little explanation about the whole eight years thing. This explains the layout of the trilogy. It's a tad bit spoilerish, so if you want, you can skip till the beginning of the chapter

It was said to give you guys a time frame here. This story will have an end, even if it takes 8 years. The trilogy is divided like this: The first book will end when Dave goes away on Saturday night. It just covers the first week when they met him. The second book covers what happens in those eight years. It doesn't mean that they stayed -or left- or anything at this moment. Michael will get to know what Dave was thinking then, but under what circumstances, well... that I'm not telling you :P

Third book covers what happens after Dave's plan is revealed.

XIV
Making Plans

By 12:34 p.m. Liz was positively going to make something explode, alien powers or no alien powers. She was holding the empty plastic water bottle as if her life was depending on it. Where was Max? And for that matter, where was Michael as well?

She had been scared beyond belief when for what had seemed like an eternity early that morning, Max had shut her out, completely, making her feel a coldness where Max’s warmth had always been. What the hell had happened at that early hour, she had no idea, but she hadn’t liked it at all. And then, an instant later, Max’s connection had returned with a huge feeling of “I’m sorry” that had left her feeling confused. Max is okay, she had kept telling herself all morning long, almost embracing herself for another shock of coldness if whatever had happened to Max happened again. Oh, her husband had a big explanation to give, Liz knew, but she would wait for that till they were alone. After all, discussing their connection in public wasn’t exactly a merry thought.

She had kept feeling Max’s discomfort all morning long, which she could understand to some degree. But for an hour now, she had been experiencing something different from him. Something she had never felt before. It wasn’t as if Max was angry, because it wasn’t such a conventional feeling, but it was like a mix of fear with intensity and something else… something along the lines of determination. Oh, and of Max’s stubbornness she had more than just a few memories. Usually, when they were being stubborn with each other for whatever reason, she would not really notice the difference between how she felt being stubborn from how Max was letting her feel his stubbornness through their connection.

But today was different. This feeling wasn’t directed at her. And the feeling was different all the same. Something had bothered Max big time, but had also made him feel afraid. What had they done at the Lab today? Because a car game would not do that to her husband’s feelings.

“You know, Liz, the bottle isn’t responsible…” Kyle said while returning to their table at the Cafeteria. He was already carrying his lunch, a couple of tuna sandwiches and an orange juice.

Liz didn’t reply, too focused on trying to decipher the latest mystery message through the connection she shared with her soul mate.

“Okay, not my best material, but you could at least roll your eyes at me…” Kyle said, sitting next to her. Maria was still serving herself. Liz wasn’t hungry. In fact, if anything but water actually managed to get through her throat, it would not pass the tight knot that was now her stomach. This apprehension was just not helping her appetite.

“Sorry,” she said, returning her attention to the rest of the world.

“You could send a message or call to the Lab, you know?” Kyle said, putting a comforting hand over her shoulder. It was at times like this that Liz remembered why she had gone out with Kyle for an entire summer back when Kyle wasn’t even half the nice guy he was now. He might think he sucked at the “meaningful stuff”, but Kyle just knew the right moment to make a gesture like this, like putting a hand on your shoulder, which instantly made you feel better.

“I know, but it’s just half an hour past midday, so I can’t…” Liz said with doubt, frowning a little, her eyes not really focused on anything. Why was she so convinced that she shouldn’t call Max? It wasn’t as if they weren’t married, for crying out loud! A wife was allowed to call her husband to check on things, right? Max had told her that his Mom called his Dad once a day. Since her parents had worked together, she hadn’t been able to see that kind of behavior though…

All the same, Ray had told her about calling Max from the first moment they had met him at the Gym, and he had kept saying it throughout the morning. He had also told Maria the same thing as well, since this time, Maria wasn’t all that confident on Dave keeping his side of the deal if for some reason Michael managed to exasperate him…

Her best friend wasn’t much better than herself at trying to not look nervous. Well, make that at the edge of a nervous breakdown. Maria had kept glancing at the watch just as badly as Liz had done the day before. Except that Kyle was now in the picture and he had really tried to make light of the situation as often as he could. Liz had the impression that Kyle wasn’t far from joining the anxiety club, though, and this was his way of releasing his stress. Liz envied him. She just couldn’t get into sarcastic mode when she was worried about Max.

Why couldn’t Max just be here waiting for her? And the reason she wasn’t calling, or paging, or sending a message or whatever to him was because they had agreed that they had to be strong, and look strong as well. That meant not panicking because the other wasn’t at the Cafeteria at 12 sharp. That also meant that she was relying on their connection to be sure –and to reassure Kyle and Maria- that everything was okay. And when Max had shut her out at 7:30 a.m. …

Why where they being kept apart, anyway? Liz wondered for the millionth time that day. Why couldn’t they just go all together and see whatever the hell was in the Lab? They really didn’t need to exercise that much… Liz made a mental note to ask exactly that tomorrow, when her turn to meet Dave at his office came.

And why was Maria taking so long to return to the table too? One glance told her the reason: Michael was –finally- coming into the large room, and Maria had forgotten the world around her, going to him in an amazingly controlled walk. Liz lost a little bit of her tension. Now, if only Max could come right away…

She felt him before she actually saw him. A very distinctive sensation. Max’s presence getting nearer was something she just couldn’t miss. Liz’s eyes lighted up in a second. Not only because Max was finally coming, but because it was the first time she could tell he was coming. Max had told her that he always knew when she was nearby, or if she was not so close to him, but for Liz, there hadn’t been any real difference. Till now. And for a brief moment, she was thrilled.

The next moment, however, just as she turned to look at Max entering the Cafeteria, their eyes meeting, she could also feel Max’s mixed feelings getting stronger, especially his stubbornness. Whatever had happened at the Lab, Max was setting in stone whatever was passing through his mind right now. Liz gave him a small smile while getting out of the chair and going to meet him some 15 feet away, and Max returned it with one of his own. Well, it couldn’t be that bad if he was still smiling at her, right?

Right?

They met right beside where Maria was standing with Michael, both already moving towards their table. If it was hard to put a name to Max’s feelings, it was just practically impossible to put a name to Michael’s face. He was serious, okay, but Liz couldn’t know if he was mad, angry, ready to blow up the whole Cafeteria, or what. Isabel joined them as they started to walk.

“He’s in one piece,” Max’s sister said barely above a whisper.

“Let’s hope everything and everyone else is as well,” Max answered back, though he was talking in whispers. Certainly, putting in doubt their faith in Michael’s behavior wasn’t something either one of them wanted Michael to overhear.

Liz had a million questions to ask, but decided to wait just a little bit longer for everyone to hear today’s news.

“It wasn’t that bad, then?” Kyle was saying as the last three of the group gathered around the table. He was asking Michael, who simply sat by Maria’s side, opposite to where Liz, Max and Isabel were now sitting. Kyle was at one end. All eyes expectant on him, Liz couldn’t remember a time where they were all waiting so eagerly for Michael’s words.

“It could have been worse,” Michael answered shrugging, and then, as if something clicked in his head, he turned to look at Liz. “We are going to that base thing this afternoon, right? The Network Geeks’ place?

Liz narrowed her eyes, “Yeah…” what was Michael implying here? All her response was a small smile on Michael’s lips. Almost a malicious smile, a testimony that something was up in her almost brother-in-law’s mind.

“You hungry?” Max asked her, an uncertain undertone in his voice, something that had nothing to do with his question and everything to do with Michael’s actions.

“I am now,” Liz said, feeling the knot in her stomach loosen up just a little bit. But she wasn’t prepared at all when Michael answered Max’s questioning look about if he was going to get his own lunch.

“I’ve already eaten.”

What? When? Where?! With Dave? For the second time in less than five minutes, the whole group was staring at Michael again. What exactly had happened at Dave’s office? Especially if it had involved an actual meal.

“I got out of there early, I came here early,” Michael said in a it’s-not-a-big-deal tone. Well, getting out “early” did sound like something Michael would do. But how much early, for that matter? Granted, Kyle, Maria and Liz had only been around the Cafeteria for not more than twenty minutes, but still Liz felt suspicious about it. And for that matter, where had Michael been if not at Dave’s office or the Cafeteria?

Max nodded at her side, not making any more questions, and placing a hand over her shoulder –one that felt infinitely more reassuring than Kyle’s gesture earlier, and Liz felt a little bit guilty for comparing both touches, when she absolutely knew there was no comparing to do- the three of them, Isabel included, went to get their lunch.

Max sighed with relief as they were finishing serving, and barely murmured “he’s alright”, almost as if he couldn’t believe it. Liz smiled at him. “I told you he knew how to do this.” Max smiled at her, though it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “He’s in one piece, okay, but I’m not sure if I want to hear what was said… or how early he actually got away…”

“Or where he was if not with Dave or here?” Liz asked him, arching her eyebrows. Max frowned, clearly not having thought about it. Taking a Cherry Coke each, they both went back to where their friends were.

The only married couple of the group was the last to join on the table. Michael had picked one of Maria’s French fries and was dipping it into a pool of Tabasco sauce. Isabel was pouring the red condiment as if trying to drown her own food too. No matter how many times she had seen them eating everything –and she meant everything- with Tabasco, she still couldn’t help herself mentally saying ‘yuck’. Sure, she didn’t mind a little spiciness in her daily diet, but…

Max reached for the Tabasco bottle as soon as his sister finished with it. Liz turned her eyes to Michael.

“So, how did it go?” Now that they were all together, their collective anxiety was not as high as when they were in groups scattered all around the complex, but still, everyone slowed down whatever they were doing so they could pay attention to Michael’s words.

“I found out some interesting things…” Michael said picking another French fry. “He has the translation of the alien book, that’s for sure. He said something about us being the ultimate proof that memories can be cloned.”

“He said that?” Max asked in a low tone, his food untouched. Liz bit her lip.

“But you guys barely remember a thing,” Kyle said, picking the Tabasco sauce. At least he just intended to spice his food, not to make a pond for it.

Michael shrugged, “Apparently he doesn’t know that. I don’t know, he didn’t say anything else but that.” Michael stopped picking fries, and got a more serious way. “Anyway, he admitted he had played every trick he could think of to convince us to stay here,” Michael said, leaning over the table, eyes intense. “So you were right with your flash, Max. He was somehow desperate to get us here.”

“But he didn’t tell you why,” Max said, the same intensity in his eyes.

“No, he always got around that question. The most I got was that he would lose if we decide to go.”

“He said he would lose? Lose what?” Isabel asked, her food also forgotten.

“He said we both would lose, but didn’t say what exactly. I mean, he was implying our lives would be pretty much over,” Michael sarcastically said, “but he didn’t say what he would lose. And it didn’t strike me as if the only thing he would miss is the opportunity to have us as his guinea pigs. There’s something else happening in here.”

“Do you think it could be something dangerous?” Maria asked, concern in her voice, mirroring Liz’s own worries. “That whatever he wants will put you in danger?”

Michael’s eyes left Maria’s and met with Max’s. Liz turned to look at her husband as well. Max lowered his gaze and sighed. “We don’t know.”

“And we should,” Michael said, completely certain of his words. That kind of certainty he always got before he went on doing something… mainly something impulsive.

“Yeah, we should,” Liz said, jumping in the conversation. “That’s why we are going to study different things, so we can get into different sections of this place, right?”

“We need to do more than just that,” Michael said.

“What are you proposing?” Kyle asked, frowning. “Join the Salsa lessons on Friday night?”

“That would be a start,” Michael said, clearly not really paying attention to what Kyle had suggested, his own mind racing to explain what he was thinking. All the same, Maria arched her eyebrows, making Michael stop for a second. “I mean, joining with other people so we can get to know what they know. It doesn’t matter what kind of group that is,” he said, shrugging. “Anyway, they have this voluntary thing, some sort of community service. That might give us access to other areas. Though I’m not sure what it is all about.”

“How did you find out about this community service stuff?” Maria asked, frowning. Clearly, Michael was full of surprises today.

“I went to the kitchen and overheard it,” Michael said, as if it were such an obvious thing.

“What were you doing in the kitchen?” Maria asked again, her frown even deeper now.

“There was no Tabasco sauce, okay? It doesn’t matter, the point is, we have to get as much information from Dave as we can. That might hold the key to what the hell he wants from us. Because I don’t think he would leave us alone if we decide to go right this moment, and I sure as hell want to know why.”

“What else did he tell you?” Max asked. He was thoughtful, as if measuring Michael’s words and plans. That fear that they had made the wrong choice was getting stronger than usual. Liz placed a hand over his leg under the table and was instantly rewarded by Max’s warm feelings through their connection. Some sort of “thank you”, she guessed. He glanced at her with a small smile and then turned again to look at Michael.

It impressed Liz that Michael had been able to keep a four-hour long conversation by going around in circles. After all, everyone knew Michael wasn’t the talkative type. He told them about key points of his conversation, of course, but by the sound of it, they had both talked a lot without really saying much. Liz sighed to herself. How was it going to be with her? How should she approach this… challenge?

“Dad’s secretary?” Isabel asked with disbelief.

“I knew that tramp from Freshman year meant trouble,” Maria said just a second later.

“How many people do you think he sent?” Kyle asked, a lonely tuna sandwich forgotten on his plate.

“Enough to get to know us,” Michael said, a little bit annoyed. “But here’s the thing: Why not tail us at all times? Us, not other people. He said it was too much of a risk that others found out about what he was after. Which means there are people that could be a problem for him, a real problem,” Michael emphasized, a hint of triumph in his eyes.

“But other people finding about us would mean bigger problems for us as well,” Isabel said, barely getting over the shock that people she had barely noticed could have been potentially spying on her at all times. It was a feeling Liz could relate to. How many customers at the Crashdown had been sent by Dave? Because, one thing was to suspect it, and another to know for sure it had happened.

“I don’t mean us,” Michael said in a lower tone, “but just like Ray said on Saturday, Dave has his projects. I bet he doesn’t want other people finding about those either.”

“So we are back to what we decided on Sunday,” Kyle said, reaching for his juice, “we are looking for secrets concealed in this place.”

“Yes,” Michael said looking at Kyle, “but we are also looking for Dave’s specific secrets. He has a life, and someone has to know about that life. That’s what he did with us. And those Net Nerds are going to help us figuring that out.”

“Because they are also after him,” Liz said, finally getting why Michael had been so… glad they were going to the Network Keepers’ Base that afternoon.

“But isn’t it just like a game for them?” Maria said, and turning to look at Kyle, continued, “I mean, didn’t Dave tell you that it was a cat-mouse game between them?”

Kyle stopped drinking. “I bet Dave thinks of it as a game, but you didn’t see how excited Jeremy looked when I told him I had met with the mysterious Dave. It sure as hell isn’t a game for them.”

“So, what are you suggesting,” Isabel asked Michael, “that we go up front with the Network people and tell them that Dave’s here?”

“No,” Michael said firmly, “that’s not the way to go around this thing. We have to do this bit by bit, and keep things to ourselves.”

Max nodded in approval. “Dave can’t know we are on to him this bad. And for that matter, not anyone else in here. They can mislead us if we are not careful.”

Great. Now it wasn’t only fearing Jake, Ray and Dave, but the other 500 people around here. Liz looked down at her dessert and knew it wouldn’t make it past the knot in her stomach. Well, it wasn’t as if she were planning on trusting anyone else outside her group, but it wasn’t a nice thought to look at everyone as enemies, especially in a confined space like this one. Gosh, she needed air. And for the first time, Liz truly missed the sky as well.

* * *

“I need a drink.”

“Oh, come on Jake. It’s not even 2:00 p.m.” Dave said standing to meet his friend, leaving the puzzle piece he had been holding just a second before at one corner of the table.

“What were you thinking, Dave?” Jake asked before Dave reached him. There was a hint of reproach in his voice, but also tiredness. “I mean, what were you thinking when you decided to bring them here?”

Dave leaned against the table, his back to the windows and the puzzle, resting his weight on his hands. “I was trying to protect them. I’m still trying to do so too.”

“Protect them from what?” Could Dave just tell him once and for all what this whole thing was about?

“From the world, of course,” Dave said shrugging, and then, as if thinking it, he silently repeated to himself, “from the world…” A beat, then, “Anyway, if you want a drink at this hour, I take it it didn’t go all that well today?” For a moment, Dave had looked infinitely older, almost as if he were carrying on his shoulders the world he had spoken of an instant before. But now he had returned to his usual self, looking younger than he really was.

“Oh, it went okay, but they are not happy here,” Jake said without hiding his thoughts. Dave respected truth, so he was going to get it now. “They are too scared. It doesn’t matter how I present them the project, their hearts are not in it.”

“You’ll find a way. You always do.” Dave said with a smile, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“Yeah, well, I hope your faith in me will someday catch on them. I went as far as offering them to learn ways of escaping. I have to talk to Ray about that, by the way.”

“Escaping? What do you mean escaping?” Dave said frowning, dropping his hands to his sides.

“Escaping ambushes, the FBI’s traps, alien hunters’ techniques, and people like you of course,” Jake made a small sarcastic smile with his last comment. “Things that they might think are useful.”

Dave didn’t seem to like the idea for two seconds, and then, arching his eyebrows, he just shrugged. “Okay, as long as they are comfortable with it. Just tell Ray to go slow on that training,” Dave turned to the table again, picking up the piece he had left on the corner, trying to figure out where it would fit. “I certainly don’t want them ‘escaping’ two months from now.”

“Well, they shouldn’t need to, right? I mean, they are free to go whenever they want.” Jake said, taunting Dave. Moving to the desk, the older man started to flip the closest tiny pieces.

“Yeah,” Dave half grunted, half said with an annoyed tone. “That was the only thing I could think of that would convince them to actually stay.”

“Really? So what would you do if they decide to leave?” Jake asked, amused. Dave didn’t hesitate a second to respond.

“Well, the deal was pretty clear on that one: I can’t follow them, I’ll just disappear. I won’t like it, and they won’t like it out there either. But that’s beside the point,” Dave rushed in, clearly not liking where this conversation was going. “If you are doing your job right, they are not going to go anywhere.” Their eyes met. Was Dave joking or not?

“My job? I didn’t read anywhere that my job was to keep them here. In fact, you didn’t even mention they were here against their will.” This time, Jake’s words came a little bit harsher than he had intended. All the same, he was tired and wanting a drink at 1:43 p.m. because he was having the hardest time trying to figure a way to bond with these kids.

“Oh, come on Jake, don’t be melodramatic. They are here willingly as you pointed out just a minute ago. They can leave whenever they want.” Dave said, trying to sound comical, but that had come out sounding more like an excuse. They hadn’t been best friends for 32 years without getting to know the other that well.

“The only reason why they are going to the lab is so you won’t kick them out. In my book, that is not ‘willingly’ Dave.” And that had come out sounding like a reprimand.

“Okay, okay, so we differ on semantics.” Dave said rolling his eyes. Then, getting into a serious note, Dave said looking him straight in the eye: “But Jake, please, do everything in your power to keep them here.” A pause, then, “Did they warm up to your idea of learning escapes?” The smile had returned, the serious tone replaced by a good natured one. That was Dave’s unspoken way of making peace, one Jake never refused. This “semantics” discussion could wait… for now.

“They accepted it, not exactly with cheers and applauses, but at least something flickered in their fearful eyes.” Jake stopped flipping pieces. “Still, we didn’t exactly end on good terms today.”

“What do you mean? What happened?” Dave asked with concern, his muscles visibly tense, his puzzle forgotten. His best friend was clearly worried that something could go astray.

“You know about Max’s healing ability, of course, but… something very strange happened less than a year ago.” So Jake proceeded to tell him almost word for word what Max had told him about Clayton Wheeler, and Meta Chem. So they were the owners of the dress, had been Dave’s only interruption to the whole account of events.

“Anyway, the bottom line is, he doesn’t want to use his healing ability ever again,” Jake said, still standing in front of Dave’s desk, who had taken a seat sometime through the tale in his usual chair.

“He would if he had to.” Dave said, thoughtfully. He hadn’t reached for a single piece ever since Jake had started. “He healed Michael when they were getting out of the FBI trap. There was a blood trail that vanished in the woods. He will have to show you at some point how he does it.”

“What are you suggesting? That I shoot Michael so I can see him using that ability?” Jake joked.

“Of course not,” Dave said with humor too, “but at least we know his fear isn’t all that bad. It can be overcome.”

Jake sighed. “It is understandable that he doesn’t want to do it again. He just doesn’t seem to realize that what he did with Clayton and what he does when he heals are just different things.”

“You didn’t tell him that?”

“Sure I did. He said he didn’t care. It felt the same way for him, so he sees no real difference. But he has to practice on some level if he expects to understand it and get better at it…”

“Well, my friend, that’s why you are considered a genius, you figured this one out, because you are right: He has to practice. Anyway, are you hungry? Michael didn’t accept a thing all morning long, so I’ve been waiting for you to put my teeth to good use.”

Jake laughed, and both men went to see what was in Dave’s fridge. Still, something was bothering Jake. There was something odd about the way Dave was so adamant about the fact that they had to work with their mental abilities. He kept saying that every time they talked. And that interest was something beyond the project itself, and had little or nothing to do about getting to know what the human brain was capable of. But what could it be?

“There was something very intriguing about today’s interview,” Dave said, passing Jake an unwrapped sandwich. “Michael kept staring at my favorite code all morning long.”

Jake started to pull layer after layer of white, impermeable paper. “Staring?” he absently asked.

“Well, not really staring in the whole sense of the word,” Dave said, looking at the black numbers opposite to where they were now. “Every time he wanted to change subjects or I kept silent for a little time, his eyes turned to it.”

“He might have thought it odd, that’s all.” Jake said receiving a 7up can.

“No,” Dave said, emphasizing his word by shaking his head. “He wouldn’t have turned to look at it 27 times in two hours if he had thought it was odd. He knew there was some hidden meaning to it, he just didn’t know how to decipher it. I know the look Jake; I have seen it a million times on my own face.”

Jake smiled, finally getting to see the brown color of the baguette bread. “Not everyone is like you, Dave.”

Dave shrugged, a little bit annoyed. “Make sure he does his math. I have a sense that he’s a natural code breaker.”

“A sense?” Jake said, arching one eyebrow. “Now you are psychic too?” Dave’s annoyed look grew deeper. “Okay, okay. But you know that to ask Michael to do math is quite a challenge. Especially the kind of math he would need to learn to be a real code breaker, not just one that senses there’s a code but that’s it. That might take some time, and that is assuming he actually wants to do it.”

Oh, of all the things Jake couldn’t just imagine… What was up with Dave trying to get these kids into following a career path anyway? Was it just so they would have something else to pass time down here? Was Dave planning to place them somewhere according to their area of expertise? No, that couldn’t be. Dave had hundreds of people at his disposal already trained in whatever he needed. Why bother with making these kids study then? Especially something like breaking mathematical codes? Dave might think it was the easiest thing in the world, but for common mortals, math was usually the most hated class.

Both men settled into a comfortable silence while eating. Jake returned to his inner puzzle. A sense of normalcy? Jake thought. If they were common mortals, now they would be finishing their first year in college –second for Isabel. Was that why Dave was trying to make them interested in something? So they would feel like they were doing normal stuff? But then again, why codes? Why not encourage Michael into developing his artistic side? This whole thing was just a question mark after a question mark. Ever since Dave had told him, Jake had suspected something off, but back then it had been just a feeling. He still remembered when Dave had called him seven months ago:

“You know, I have the perfect project for you,” Dave had said in a calmed voice over the phone.

“You do?” Dave had a million projects in his head, so Jake barely kept tabs of those, much less knew any in any kind of depth. But what he did know about Dave’s projects was that Dave always considered them big. And usually, they were. “Is it something that will change History or just my personal life?” Jake had joked.

“Maybe both,” Dave had said, quietly, almost as if he didn’t want anyone overhearing him on the other side of the line. “What if I tell you that that camera you’ve been working on on weekends has a lot of potential with this project?”

“Dave my friend, you’ve finally become a religious man and now you want to know about your aura’s color?” Jake had joked again, holding the cell phone between his jaw and his left shoulder, trying to open a Coke. Last time they had talked about that project, Jake had told him that some of his colleagues were trying to figure out a way of proving that what they were seeing was the human soul.

“No,” Dave had laughed, “I was thinking more along the lines the Russians did when they first developed it.”

“Psychic Abilities? Really? I thought you weren’t interested in that kind of thing.”

“Well, I am now. Would you be interested in working with… how do you say it? ‘Gifted’ kids?”

Jake had stopped right there. Dave wasn’t joking. Placing the now open Coke over the table, Jake had straightened himself up and had grabbed the cell phone with his right hand. “How gifted?”

“Very.”

Two weeks later Dave had told him about the true nature of his very gifted, if not any longer kids. It had been mind blowing. Not because they were aliens, but because they were just half aliens. Just like Dave’s true love was knowledge in general, Jake’s true love was Biology, especially Neurobiology. That was why he was interested in psychic abilities to begin with. And these kids –he couldn’t really call them anything else after that call- were hybrids with far more advanced abilities than anything or anyone he had even heard of. They were practically the most advanced human beings on the planet. They were just the perfect study cases.

But Dave had made it sound as if they wanted to experiment with their abilities. Wanted to know them. So Jake knew they were on the run and that Dave was looking for a way of getting them into a safe place, but Jake had really thought they were also going to be comfortable with the idea. Well, he was wrong, and now he had to find a way of righting this whole situation. This whole mess as it was turning out to be.

Gosh, when he had been talking with Max and Isabel this morning –and he hadn’t liked the idea of leaving Michael out of that conversation but he had to do something while the two siblings were with him- he had just wanted to ask a million personal questions. The little details that made research so fulfilling. But that required a kind of confidence that only developed with time.

When Max had told him they could connect with people, he had been really close to just saying: “Do it. Connect with me and let me see it.” God, he would love to be a test science subject, to get to experience first hand a psychic connection. But neither Max or Isabel would have felt comfortable with the idea, so Jake hadn’t wanted to push it… yet.

When they had started talking about Liz’s connection, he had had to bite his tongue on suggesting “Would you ask her if she wants to explore it?” Oh, he could just picture in his head Max’s round eyes filling with terror, his heartbeat going three times faster. No. It would take for Liz to be at death’s door for Jake to have a medical look at her and Max being okay with it. And it was such a frustrating thing, because he knew that under other circumstances, Liz would probably be interested in learning the science behind all of it. If she could only convince her husband, sister-in-law, and their mutual best friend…

By now, Jake had already planned tomorrow’s strategy about getting to make some bonding with them. Especially since the three of them were going to be there. He wasn’t expecting it to be easy, but he had to keep trying on different approaches to earn their trust. Because whatever the hell Dave wanted or expected, the truth was as simple as this: Either the whole thing worked or it didn’t.

And so far, building trust with the most advanced humans on this planet just plain sucked.

Misha · Post by **Misha** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 10:07 pm

* * *

14b

Comes from previous post... it wouldn't fit...

* * *

Maria kept pressing number after number on her brand new cell phone, courtesy of the Network guys. It was now 3:20 p.m. and the six of them where in the not small, but not quite large “lobby” of the Network Keeper’s Base. There was a desk shaped like a C filled with papers of all colors, and about six or seven computers spread along it, all of which had neon colored post-it’s with unreadable messages all around the monitors. Which was the only thing she could see of those computers: Flat plasma monitors.

A guy had met with them at that desk.

“We are here because—”, Max had started, but the guy had interrupted him.

“You are the new guests!” the blond and curly haired guy had said with a huge smile. “We were expecting you. So, anything we can serve you?”

The six of them had stared at each other. They were here because they had been sent here, not because they needed anything, really…

“We could use some cell phones,” Isabel had said, showing her very impressive smile, one that earned every guys’ favors. Predictably, the guy had disappeared, returning three minutes later with six boxes, all containing the latest in cell phone technology. Of course, this meant smaller buttons, smaller monitors, smaller everything, and a headache trying to decipher the whole thing.

She was by now half through saving all the others’ cell phone numbers into her own, something that required patience and damned good hand-manipulation to pulse all the right buttons.

“There should be an easier way to do this…” Maria murmured as Isabel was putting her cell phone into her jeans’ front pocket. Apparently, the Ice Princess had better coordination when it came to using small buttons and interminable menus on tiny monitors.

“Well, you can access them from your personal G.E.S. or your windows at home,” a guy said behind her. Maria turned around in an instant. It was the same red-haired guy that had been attending at The Shop the day before. Maria felt her eyes going round, almost as if saying “you?”, her eyebrows going up as well. Thinking that it was a little bit rude, she turned her surprise into a smile.

“Oh. Hi. Windows? What windows?”

“That’s how we call the plasma monitors at your apartment. Since there are no real windows down here, well,” the still stranger said shrugging, “I guess we think of those as our only windows to the world.”

“Yeah? Can I call France from this?” Maria said, lifting her brand new cell phone. She already knew the answer before the slightly older guy in front of her said while laughing, “Of course not! But wouldn’t that be great?”

“What would be great?” Michael said, coming from behind Maria, a slight frown on his face. Michael had been talking to Kyle about some points that apparently Dave had asked him, trying to corroborate that they both had said the same things, so Maria had been pretty much absorbed in getting a cell phone without worrying about her Space Boy. The look in the eyes of the red haired guy changed in an almost imperceptible way, but Maria knew the look: the one that said “you are not exactly single, then?”

“He was telling me that I don’t have to access the numbers from here, but that I can write them from the computers at the apartment,” then, turning to look at the guy, she asked him, “sorry, what’s your name?”

“Allan,” he said, extending a hand to Michael, obviously waiting for an introduction on their part.

“Nice to meet you Allan, I’m Maria,” the blond girl said as her turn of taking Allan’s hand came, “and this is Michael. And we were wondering—”

“Ha!” Maria was interrupted by that sole word from someone on the other side of the room. Exactly where Max and Liz were now looking at a short brunette with short hair, white skin and narrow eyes. A Chinese girl. “You owe me 10 credits, Allan. Here’s my Liz and Max!”

The six teens stood as still as statues, looking randomly at either the short girl or the red haired guy. What was all this about? Michael was the first to snap, though it had only been seconds from the moment Maria had been interrupted.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Maria felt a strong arm around her waist, a protective gesture from Michael.

“Sorry,” Allan apologized to them. “It’s just a little bet we are having…”

“A bet?” Liz asked, looking at Max, and then at the Chinese girl.

“Well,” the short haired girl said blushing a little bit, “we are used to have newcomers every two or three weeks, but by now we are so used to certain names, that we are just expecting them.”

“Expecting them?” Kyle and Maria said at the same time, both turning to look at each other.

“Yeah,” Allan said, going behind the desk that the first blond guy had apparently abandoned. “It started around seven months ago. Groups of six people started coming. By the forth month, there were always common names like Michael,” the Network Keeper said smiling at Michael, “or John, or Ben, that were always repeating themselves. So out of the twenty five most used names, we pick two randomly and wait for the next group to arrive. May Ling chose Max and Liz, while I chose John and Ann. So she wins,” Allan said while typing something at one of the monitors by pressing the plasma buttons.

But Maria hardly noticed. That was really impressive. She could still remember Michael saying that a group of six would always be remembered, and apparently, Dave had thought exactly the same thing, because he had made sure that meeting groups of six was such a common thing down here, that no one would care. He had gone as far as making their names pretty common too. If leaks happened, well, it was going to be harder to pick their exact group among dozens who had similar names.

Maria had a renewed sense of wonder at the lengths Dave had gone and was still going to keep them here, and make sure no one thought it strange. It also made her feel trapped, and cold, and apprehensive, and to her surprise, those feelings weren’t all from her alone. Michael was letting her feel him as well. His grip had stayed firmly in place too.

“So, which are your areas of expertise?” May Ling asked, getting behind the desk as well, her narrow eyes fixed on Liz.

“We are not exactly experts…” Liz started to say, “We sort of have to still decide that…”

“Oh, you are that kind of guests; the ones that come for… how did the first group called it? You are here for the ‘internship’?” the Network Keeper said smiling, though Maria had almost laughed at the word guests. “You are not that common, sure, but I would guess by your white cards that some of you are experts?”

Were they? The six of them stared at each other, again, but this time, no one said anything.

“So, we are also that secretive, hm?” May Ling said, a mischievous smile on her face, the kind that was meant to say and I’ll find all those secrets too. “Anyway, if you are here for an internship, I presume you want the grand tour? See what will interest you?”

They all nodded, not quite enthusiastically, but they managed. What could there be remotely interesting in a place full of computer geeks? To her surprise, Michael was actually moving her forward, in an uncharacteristically display of interest on his part. It shouldn’t have surprised her, really, not after this morning.

Michael hadn’t exactly let her feel him as Liz felt Max, but Michael had had the courtesy of letting her know that he was okay. That was it. And of course, she should be thankful he had done as much as that… But the other thing that had slipped through that connection was a mixed feeling of fear and determination. One that was pretty much the same one that Liz had felt from Max, if Maria had been able to tell that.

The difference was that Maria did know exactly what Michael was setting his mind to: Dave. She had known it from the moment he had started to tell them about his meting with the oh so powerful Dave, how he had known about people from his childhood, and that annoying way of getting around the big question: What the hell did he want from the wonder trio?

She guessed Michael had taken as personally as it could get the fact that Dave had known so many things about him. Michael hated to be predictable, and half of the time the only thing predictable about him was that he was going to be unpredictable. He hated being known so well, especially by strangers, and he wanted his enemy to know exactly how that felt. This was going to be a long stay, no matter how short the time they actually remained in that place, Maria decided right that moment.

They entered the room that was beyond the lobby space, May Ling at the front and Allan at the rear. The room was pretty large, twice the lobby size, lined with black beeping computers that looked like lockers –servers, she would recall the name later from scenes in movies- and a wide screen was at the end of the room divided into little images of cameras all looking into the outside world. It was all still covered in snow, Maria saw. The other thing she noticed was that the room was really cold too.

“You told Jeremy that you have met Dave?” Allan said, a little bit too rushed, almost as if unsure of asking that, but not being able to restrain himself.

“Please…” May Ling said, rolling her eyes at him. “Every group tells Jeremy that, and no offense,” she said turning to look at them, “but no one gets to meet the Dave just for an internship. That just isn’t possible.”

Well… you would be surprised at what is and what isn’t impossible around us… Maria thought, catching a small smile on Liz’s lips.

Allan blushed, though it was hard to tell because the room was also dark. “This is the control room,” Allan said, trying to change subjects now that May Ling had mocked him. “This screen shows the main outside areas. An alarm goes on if anything taller than 3 feet passes in front. Which means that even a 3 feet tall green alien would be caught on the security system,” Allan joked. They laughed nervously. Sure, Maria thought, but what tells you that those are the only kind of aliens out there?

“So,” Michael asked, in a seemingly casual tone, “What’s up with you and this Dave guy? Why the fuss?” True. They knew there was this mystery around the guy, but hadn’t William told them that he didn’t know about that secret identity thing till recently? So, it wasn’t some global knowledge that Dave was this elusive guy… at least not for everyone who worked for him. As far as they knew, only the Network Keepers were chasing him.

Allan and May Ling looked at each other, frowning. Almost as if they couldn’t understand the question.

“You don’t know who Dave is? I mean, what he does?” May Ling asked, half surprised, half suspicious.

“Big boss, big company, big secrets, many interests…” Kyle said, summarizing in one phrase pretty much everything they knew. Oh, and add to that kidnapper of half aliens and Co., please.

“And you don’t know why he’s the big boss, with the big company, with the big secrets and how he keeps all his interests under the microscope?” Allan said, leaning over the only desk from which the controls to the screens were. Allan turned to look at May Ling, his eyes just as suspicious as hers.

“We only got an offer from him, that’s all,” Isabel said, frowning, making it sound as it wasn’t a big deal if they didn’t want to tell them all those facts. Of course, the six of them were pretty much dying to get to know a little bit more.

After a moment of deliberation, May Ling finally gave in. “We don’t know that much about Dave,” she said, “He’s the best at breaking computer codes. Breaking security systems, bank accounts, governments classified information. That kind of thing. He gathers information from just about every place on the planet that has a computer on it. He’s also the best at keeping his own systems untouchable. No one has ever been able to reach him, though he certainly has reached us…”

“He’s like our real life Morpheus, you know, from The Matrix?” Allan said excitedly. Max glanced at Michael almost with an annoyed look, rolling his eyes at him. Michael only smiled. Had Maria missed some conversation between those two?

“The reason we are here,” said May Ling, moving her head slowly from side to side as if saying don’t pay attention to him, “is because we were able to break his level five code. So the prize is being recruited. We also got our offer, you can say. Of course, only the best can actually work at one of these underground things.”

“I take it that breaking level five codes is difficult then?” Michael asked, embracing Maria from the back. Michael was getting anxious, so he was simulating it by that motion. Maria didn’t care. She loved having Michael so close, and knew that Michael enjoyed her closeness too.

If May Ling and Allan had been drinking, well, most of the drink would have probably been on the floor by now. They had practically choked themselves with Michael’s question.

“Difficult? Difficult he asks!” May Ling said, in a melodramatic tone –Maria knew the tone just too well; she had been using it since she was 7 years old.

“There’s only one more level to break,” Allan said, all serious now. “The unbreakable six. It is rumored among Network Keepers that if you do that, you’ll get to meet Dave himself. We are at it all the time, but not even when we do group attacks, does it work. But once…” Allan said, his eyes getting dreamy, “once we messed with one of his level five internal codes…” May Ling had gotten the same dreamy expression. The six teens only blinked.

“Come, we’ll show you!” Allan said, walking to a door next to the one they had come in. Maria turned to look at Michael. What were they going to see? Some stupid computer program? Green lines falling on a computer’s monitor? They followed the other two, who had already disappeared into the other room.

This one was well lighted, and it certainly looked like the place a computer junkie would be. There were around ten plasma monitors lined up around all four walls, each separated by a small wood division. The desks were also wood made, and very large. There were computer books of just about every size and color everywhere, chip bags, soda cans –both empty and unopened- papers and once-paper-now-ball papers, towers and towers of CD’s on and under the desks, all kinds of action figures from computer games, some printers and scanners, walls that were just falling apart with every single poster there was about The Matrix along with games, and, Maria guessed, Japanese cartoons. And last but not least, four guys and one girl all looking at the furthest monitor at one corner. They were so consumed by what they were seeing that none of them noticed the newcomers.

Apparently, neither May Ling nor Allan noticed them either, because they went directly to the wall they had in front, and there, where nothing was put under or around it –not even an empty chips bag or a lonely CD or a Neo picture- was a paper sheet on a frame. They moved closer to get a better look. It was a letter, written with an old fashioned typewriter.

“Well done. You’ve effectively messed with the time controllers and made your beloved administrator go crazy. I’m impressed, maybe you’ll get to level six one day… Thanks for showing me my mistake. D.”

And that was it. No date, no personal signature. Just four lonely numbers at the bottom of it, 1305. Both Network Keepers were staring at it as if it were the Holy Grail. Which was exactly the opposite of how the six of them looked: Bored and completely unimpressed.

“I take it that was written by Dave?” Max said, finally breaking the silence, scratching his right earlobe.

“Yes!” Allan said, “We know it’s from Dave not only because it was sent directly to us, and the fact that we couldn’t mess with the time controllers any more, but his numbers are there too. You know what I mean, his numbers?”

Six pairs of eyes unglued themselves from the framed white paper and looked at Allan saying NO, “Oh, of course… it’s his hacker signature. 1-0-3-5. Every time he has broken a code, he leaves that behind. That’s how we know it was him.”

“Couldn’t anyone else know that and write you? It’s pretty stupid if you ask me.” Michael said, annoyed.

“Of course not!” May Ling said, defensively, “Only a level 5 Network Keeper knows that!” And now us, Maria silently thought, not that she saw any advantage to that. After all, they all knew Dave on a shake-hands basis, didn’t they?

However, their conversation had finally attracted the other five people in the room. “You are talking about Dave?” the only girl from that group asked aloud, “Because our contact from Malaysia has just informed us that he’s pretty sure that Dave is at his base right this moment. We are just waiting for a picture of him.”

Maria snorted. Dave was keeping his word to Kyle, that was for sure. “When you talk to Jeremy next week, he’ll tell you he has confirmed visual contact with the mythical Dave in six other places over three different continents. Trust me, I’ll make sure of it.”

Allan was already gone before the other girl had finished her line, but May Ling stayed in place. “Aren’t you curious too?” Michael asked. May Ling only shrugged. “It may take hours before he sends that picture. Anyway, you obviously don’t care about that and since you are not all that impressed with our great accomplishment of hacking into one of Dave’s systems, I now know you aren’t undercover Network Keepers either.”

“Undercover?” Max asked, frowning.

“Anyone would die to know how we did it,” May Ling said, guiding them outside the room with an annoyed look on her face. “We have known for two years now that Dave sends undercover Keepers to see what we are up to. If you ask me, that’s cheating. He shouldn’t know what we are thinking doing next just as we don’t know what he’s going to do next.”

Join the club, Maria thought. If May Ling thought it was cheating that he sent spies on her from time to time, she would go ballistic if she had been followed, kidnapped and pretty much ordered into accepting a life or death offering four days ago…

By now, they were getting out of the first big room with the servers in it. “How did you find out about the undercover Keepers?” Liz asked, a thoughtful expression on her face. “I mean, wouldn’t he be cautious enough to not let you guys know?”

May Ling shrugged again. “We just did. Another Network Keeper apparently surprised the undercover bastard, and let us know. We’ve been careful ever since. You know, what we say and how we say it…”

“So, you were suspecting us?” Michael said, his eyes still glued to the screen in the servers room, him being the only one that hadn’t gotten out of there yet.

“We suspect everyone, nothing personal. Anyway, anything that interests you from this department? We truly don’t see many white cards around this place and, well, it would be nice if at least one of you decided to be here…” May Ling left her words hanging. It wasn’t till that moment that Maria noticed that May Ling’s card was black.

“Why is your card black?” Maria asked, confused, “shouldn’t you be able to go everywhere around this place?”

“Oh, yes, but Network Keepers only care about system stuff. We are not supposed to snoop around like White Cards like you do. We know what’s going on just to a degree. Only level five projects. And we suspect that there are level six projects going on somewhere in the complex, since this is the most secure one and all… We can only imagine what kind of work people do behind so many doors.”

Oh, you have no idea, Maria silently said, having the distinctive assurance that they were a level 6 project, whatever the hell that meant. However, her thoughts were shattered by the last thing she would ever think Michael would say: “So, what do you have to do to become a Network Keeper?”

* * *

“We can’t risk it,” Max said to Liz in an almost hushed tone, both lying on the living room’s larger couch, both staring at the white ceiling. “If that camera can pick up something different from us, it might pick something different from you too, or Kyle. You can’t go there…”

“But he doesn’t know what he’s seeing then?” Liz asked. Though Max couldn’t see her, he knew Liz was frowning, deep in thought about what he had just told her.

“No… but I bet he has some pretty good ideas. Anyway, if he relates anything remotely alien with you…” Max left his words unfinished, just hugging her.

“He sounds like a nice person, though…” Liz said a minute after, caressing Max’s hand. “Like he’s really trying to get along with you guys… It must be difficult for him…”

“It sure is difficult for us…” Max said, sighing. It was just too weird to have someone asking them, so openly, about their powers.

“Was it difficult with me?” Liz asked, turning to look at him. “I mean, when I started asking all those questions,” Liz said smiling, blushing a little bit. They had been so young then, so innocent.

“I had actually practiced that one,” Max said, smiling at his wife. “I knew you were going to ask sooner or later, so… It was different. It was you,” Max said looking at her. That moment in time seemed now so, so far away.

“You know, now that I’m thinking about it,” Liz said, her skin getting a redder tone, “I never finished asking all those questions… it was a pretty long list, you know?”

Max arched both eyebrows. “You still have more questions? As if I had any secrets left for you!” Max hugged her a little bit tighter, making Liz laugh and wince at the same time.

“You are still sore?” Max asked, relaxing his embrace.

“Let’s just say that exercising and laughing do not mix well… It’ll go away, sooner or later…” Liz re-accommodated herself by Max’s side on the couch. “You know, Ray was really worried that we might feel something wrong and wouldn’t be able to reach each other… Sometimes I think he’s terrified you or Michael will tear this place apart because he said something wrong to either me or Maria.”

“He better keep thinking that then, because tearing this place apart would be the first thing we both would do if something was wrong with you two, or with Kyle, or with Isabel.” And Max wasn’t joking. He couldn’t really picture it in his head, but just the raw emotions that situation aroused inside him were enough indication as to what they would do.

“I know,” Liz said quietly, “so don’t ever leave me out again, okay? For one moment this morning, I truly thought… I truly thought something was terribly wrong with you. If you had kept me out of the connection for one more instant…” Max felt Liz’s apprehension through their connection and closed his eyes. It didn’t matter that he had done it because of her safety and health, Liz just didn’t see it that way. His wife turned to look at him, putting her weight on her arms, over his chest.

“Max, our connection is the only way I have—no, that we both have to know the other is okay, here, out there, wherever. Without it… I can’t even remember how it was before you, and this morning I got a very nasty reminder. I don’t want to feel that coldness again, okay?” Max lowered his eyes. But what if—

“If something is wrong with my health,” Liz said almost as if reading his mind, “or if those headaches come again, we’ll figure it out. But don’t just close off on me, or I’ll be the one tearing this place apart.” Max smiled at her in a way of saying: I’m so defeated by you. Liz returned her own I know I have defeated you smile.

“Well, at least Jake would be thrilled to see you do something…” Max said in a teasing tone, his muscles relaxing a little bit from today’s tension.

Liz frowned. “You know, I was surprised you haven’t done anything but play cars and talk these two days, but I think I know what he’s doing.”

“You do? Because frankly, Isabel was saying something about that when we were coming to the Cafeteria at noon…”

“I think he’s gathering information. You know, before he plans the actual tests,” Max winced at the word, but because Liz was now resting her head over his chest, she didn’t really notice. He knew he had to grow out of that habit every time he heard the words lab, experiment, test, subject and project, but so far, he had failed at that.

“That may be,” Max said, thoughtful. “I wonder what he’s going to ask us to do though… He seemed quite disappointed when I refused to heal under… a controlled situation or whatever.” Max felt the same emotions he had when Isabel had asked him what he would do if Jake could convince him. So much was at stake with that sole power.

“It really bothers you, doesn’t it,” Liz said, placing her hand over his.

“Of course it does. Your safety is at stake. And Kyle’s, and who knows what other people. We don’t even know if in six months those children from Phoenix are going to start sparkling around… I just hope I haven’t made their lives… like ours…”

Max knew that in six months those kids were going to plague his dreams, and his days, and his thoughts. It was a different thing, alright, because healing cancer was a whole lot more difficult than closing a bullet wound, more consuming and definitely more exhausting, but was there any difference when it came to changing someone? He surely hoped so. But there was nothing he could do about that. What he actually could do was leave this place before that six month mark hit. In six months they would have a very good idea of what to expect. A time to make decisions again, he guessed.

“You gave them life, Max, just like you did with me and Kyle, and Valenti.” Liz’s voice came reassuringly through the fog of his mind. “Your touch changed us, but in more ways than you can imagine. They’ll be fine, we are fine too Max. Don’t worry about that.”

Oh, I won’t worry about that yet, Max silently thought. He had way too much in his head right now to worry about problems he would have to face in the near future. Nope, his plate was full, as it was now.

“Did you know what Michael was up to?” Liz asked out of the blue, changing the subject, trying to take away his own dark thoughts.

When they had left the Network Keepers Base that afternoon, pretty much shocked at what Michael had requested about getting an “internship” or whatever at the Keepers place, Maria had abruptly stopped in the middle of the hall, outside their apartments.

“You are so not going to become a computer junkie! What the hell do you know about computers in the first place?!” Maria asked, her entire body sending vibes of confusion and disbelief, the other four equally eager to hear his answer. But Michael had just opened his own apartment’s door, and had pulled Maria inside, the rest of the group following swiftly, Kyle closing the door behind him. Clearly, Michael didn’t want this conversation on the corridors’ security system tape.

“Who said anything about me being a computer geek?” Michael said defensively. “All I want is to spend a few days with them and see what the hell they know. After that, I’ll be more than happy to get out of there. Anyone can fake interest in computers for a while, that doesn’t mean you have to actually know a thing about them!”

It was so obvious, but Max felt a little bit relieved. Michael’s actions were understandable now.

“Oh… sure… for a minute there, you just scared me…” Maria said, losing her rudeness.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Michael asked outraged this time. Max had smiled, Isabel had smiled too, but Kyle hadn’t been able to suppress a little laugh. Maria kept silent for a whole minute.

“It’s just that I can’t picture you sitting all day in front of a computer, that’s all… it’s not you.”

That was true. Michael was so not the computer junkie type, no matter how much he loved computer games. That was as far as Michael would go with cracking codes, in fact.

“It took me by surprise as it did the rest of us. I wasn’t expecting Michael to take any kind of interest this soon, especially not one that involved computers…”

Liz smiled. “No, not that, I meant, what did he tell you about where he was at lunch time. I mean, his lunch time. Before he met with us at the Cafeteria.”

“You didn’t go to the kitchen for Tabasco sauce,” Max had said to Michael when they were settling for diner at his apartment early that night.

Michael had glanced at him while opening some chips. The two of them were alone in the kitchen while everybody else was talking in the living room. Max knew that he had to approach his best friend alone if he was expecting a true answer.

“No, I went to find a part of Maria’s present,” was all Michael’s answer. Max had frowned in surprise. “Something Dave actually suggested. That’s why I left early, if that’s what you were wondering too.”

“And he didn’t sound too happy about it, either,” Max finished telling Liz the small exchange of words. “I mean, that it had come from Dave or something…”

“Dave suggested something to Michael concerning Maria?” Liz said, lifting her eyes to him, amused. Max didn’t blame her, he had been equally astonished to hear that.

“He didn’t tell me what, but I got the feeling that he’s not so convinced about it. Like he’s still undecided. All I could get was that he didn’t want Maria knowing it either, so I guess he’s considering the advice seriously.” No, Michael hadn’t been precisely chatty about his whole meeting with Dave, but there had been something about Maria, Max was sure, that had set an inextinguishable flame in his best friend’s eyes. That flame that ensured that Michael was dead serious about uncovering Dave’s secrets. Max knew that Dave wouldn’t have dared to use Maria against Michael, but maybe in that weird exchange of information they had had, Michael had gotten that impression.

Whatever it had been, Max trusted Michael with some inner strength, or energy, or intuition or something. Max trusted Michael on some basic level in the fact that Michael could get to know whatever he wanted about Dave, and about this place, and about their enemies and allies in general. And though Max didn’t want to admit it to himself, he had a vague memory that in another lifetime, that had been one of Michael’s most valuable characteristics too. Apparently, something that hadn’t passed unnoticed by Max in either of their two lifetimes, and certainly something that made Max trust a good deal in Michael’s judgment regarding these things.

Because whatever Michael got to discover about Dave, or about this place, or about the motives behind the offer they had accepted, would be essential for their future lives.

TBC…

Author’s note: I forgot to tell you that the Russian experiment with that camera did happen, but the details in my head are fuzzy now… Anyway, thanks again to the Discovery Channel for that info

Post by **Ti88** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 1:04 am

oh boy we are in for a ong haul i see. great new parts. i wander if the thing on the wall is the level 6 code. and you have me more intrigues than before. about dave and eveyrhting.

Post by **majiklmoon** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 12:32 pm

I know i'm still way sucky with the feedback. I apologize. Please don't stop posting this fantabulous story

Misha · Post by **Misha** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 11:12 pm

Thank you guys for coming back to read!

Ti88, ooohhhh you are so going in the right direction!! :P It is part of the code

magiklmoon, it doesn't matter that is short! Thanks for stopping by!!

Now, this is one of my favorite openings for a chapter, so I hope you guys like it as well :D

XV
Introspective

It was such a bright day that Liz had to narrow her eyes to prevent the sun blinding her. She was standing outside the Crashdown Café, her reflection caught in the glass. She wasn’t working today, was she? No, she wasn’t, because she was wearing normal clothes, not the aqua uniform with the alien antennae on her head. But why was she here, then? Just as it usually happened in dreams, it all made sense on Liz’s mind. She was here to do an assignment. A History assignment, something about questions, she now knew.

She entered the restaurant, everyone minding their own business. Nothing had changed inside that place, not the wallpaper that Max had once made into an animated memo pad; nor the kitchen where Michael had scowled at her best friend more times than she could remember; nor the counter where she had been giggling with Maria since the day they had started to work four years ago. Nothing had changed, and nothing was out of place… except for one thing. Or more likely, for one person.

Dave was seated at the counter, his eyes fixed on a paper in front of him, a pencil rhythmically thumping again and again in an anxious act of one who has been waiting for a long time now. Somehow Liz was expecting to see Isabel here, but now she couldn’t remember why. It was Dave who she was meeting, that made perfect sense. Standing in the middle of the restaurant, she suddenly thought that she was supposed to have a paper with her as well. Wasn’t the assignment about answering each other’s questions?

At the counter, Dave had taken a napkin, and had started to shred it into tiny pieces. He hadn’t noticed her standing there, and to Liz Dave’s act seemed to be something very personal. He was finished with shredding the white napkin and was putting the pieces neatly into a tight bunch, all his concentration pinned on those little squares. Liz looked around. Wasn’t Max supposed to be there too, doing the same assignment as well? With someone else? Liz felt her stomach tightening… she couldn’t remember why she was so apprehensive about Max’s partner right now, though… something that had something to do with… was it Kyle?

Liz shook her head, she couldn’t keep Dave waiting any longer now. She sat next to him just as he was starting to put the squares back in place, as if they were pieces of a napkin puzzle. Dave lifted his eyes, surprised to see her, and a second later he smiled at her a little bit sheepish, as if he were a little boy caught doing something he had been told once and again to not do. A guilty pleasure.

“So, what’s your favorite ice cream?” Dave started to ask, his pencil firmed over the paper, his eyes staring at her. Liz frowned. She had been expecting something more difficult. “Vanilla,” she said, somehow feeling like she had done this thing before.

“What’s the best thing that has ever happened to you?” Dave asked, as he was scribbling Liz’s last answer. Liz frowned even deeper. Weren’t there a lot of questions between the ice cream one and the best thing one? She had done this before, hadn’t she?

Dave started to tap with his pencil again, waiting for her response. “Meeting Max, marrying him,” Liz said smiling, her eyes turning to her wedding ring. But if she was still at school, why was she married?

“What’s the worst thing that has ever happened to you?” Dave asked, his eyes following the trace his pencil was leaving as he was writing her husband’s name. This time Liz didn’t answer. She just didn’t know the answer to that one. Could she break it into sections? The worst thing that had happened to her in a) family, b) friends, c) school, d) other. Or could it be according to year? Or better yet to month… There were so many different kinds of “worst”. Feeling Max dying? Abandoning her parents? An uncertain future? All around just plain fear?

“I don’t know,” she honestly answered, “What’s the worst thing that has ever happened to you?” Dave stopped looking at his questions and, thinking for a second, he leveled his eyes to her. “Can I break it into sections?” He simply said, making Liz smile. Wasn’t that just a great idea or what?

Liz waked up still giggling a little, but she couldn’t remember what was so funny. For one second too she couldn’t remember where she was now. A motel? Her disorientation stopped as her eyes caught the red numbers of her alarm clock, 4:23. No, she was in no motel, but in an apartment, slash underground complex, slash prison. Liz closed her eyes at that last definition. Was this really a prison?

She turned herself to lie face up, glancing at Max who was sleeping at her left side. She didn’t want to awake him, and that meant not only not making a sound, but not sending the wrong vibes as well. He really looked like he could use a lot of sleep right now. He hadn’t said it out loud –he didn’t have to-, but Max was dreading her visit to Dave later that day more than she was. What was he going to ask her? Her favorite ice cream? Liz fixed her eyes to the ceiling. Yeah, she had been dreaming about that paper work back in Sophmore year, when their pairing couldn’t have been worse at the time. Gosh, that had been a lifetime ago.

A lifetime ago… what a weird expression it was. What was a lifetime ago anyway? Fourteen years ago she had been a five year old whose biggest dream was going to Harvard. A dream she had pursued for the next ten and a half years, until a strayed bullet had changed that dream, shattered it though she hadn’t known it just yet. A Sunday morning she had wakened to another busy early shift, thinking about her homework, her tips and her plans later that day with Maria. Around 3:00 p.m. she had been giggling and feeling a twinge guilty about Maria calling Kyle a puddle. When she had gone to sleep that night the world just didn’t make sense. Her life had turned into an impossible situation. She had been shot, apparently healed by no other than her lab partner, and now she was standing in front of the mirror looking at a silver handprint on her abdomen. Madness.

And that madness, that totally inability to understand what was happening had been what had saved Max in the first place. Why she had kept things quiet. Don't say anything, please. Max’s plea still echoed on Liz’s mind. His fear had been so tangible for her right that instant. She had lied for him without a second thought, but once things had started to sink in... Once her mind started to raise questions… Once that handprint had been glowing on her skin, making her heart almost stopped, catching her breath on her lungs… Max had been truly closed to be betrayed.

But Liz needed answers, needed to put the whole picture together, where everything made sense, and by doing so putting the world back together as well. The world where one didn’t get shot by accident so just then you would be miracle healed. A world that didn’t have lab partners with some sort of super powers and where the only way you could get a handprint glowing on your stomach was if you had had way too many beers and a green spray can by your side. So Liz had kept quiet, turning and tossing all that night, having dreams that would made envious a drug addict, not knowing at all how she was going to face Max the next day in class.

When she had woken up that Monday morning, she had gone right to the mirror, hoping that it had all been a really bad dream. But the handprint had stubbornly remained in place, glowing even more than the day before, and Liz’s heart had sunk. So the world still didn’t make sense. For one second she thought about going to her parents, going to Maria, going to someone so she wasn’t alone in a world that was just plain wrong. But the problem had been that no one she knew was a science geek as she was. No one would approach it with the calm, rational mind that would give her the calm, rational answers she needed. Her parents wouldn’t understand, Maria would freak. Liz had to do this on her own in order to get the right answers too. And that meant confronting Max. And Max was probably going to deny it, wasn’t he?

A lifetime ago Liz had taken her backpack with a dress with a bullet hole in it just in case the handprint wasn’t going to be enough to put Max against the wall and made him answer her. Every second that the world was spinning out of control made Liz felt helpless and scared. Why was Max Evans able to heal a bullet hole and no one else knew that? Except that Max hadn’t been at school early that morning. The bell had ringed and he still hadn’t been there. For one second there Liz had thought that Max was just going to disappear, leaving her with a million questions and an un-washable handprint on her stomach –oh, she had tried disappearing it with everything she had been able to think of, and that handprint had remained immaculately clean on her stomach.

Liz turned to see Max still sleeping. A lifetime ago she would have never guessed her soul mate had been watching her from afar for ten years. She had been so blind, so caught up on her own world to notice that Max Evans “was staring at her again”. Not anymore, Liz whispered to herself. She was never again leaving Max alone, or out, or anything like that, even if she herself came out of the future to tell her that. It just couldn’t work that way. Whatever was going to happen in the future, keeping them apart couldn’t possibly be the answer. Maybe that was the lesson to learn here: Without each other, there was no future.

Max’s hand involuntary moved, catching her attention. He was dreaming, she knew, his eyes moving below his eyelids, his breathing increasing. It didn’t seem to Liz that her husband was having a nice dream, so she frowned, and reaching for his hand, she said in a whisper his name.

“Max…”

Max’s eyes opened immediately, his body startled, reacting as if he had received a shock of electricity by Liz’s touch. For one second, Liz could tell Max was disoriented, his eyes adjusting to the semi dark of the room. He turned to see her, recognizing her instantly, relief replacing his disorientation.

“You were having a bad dream?” Liz asked him in a low voice, concerned.

“I’m not sure,” Max said, sleepiness trying to return to his eyes, his voice a little bit drowsy. “Something about you and this interview…” Max said, turning to his side so he could face her. “Tell me that everything is going to be okay…” Max said, half smiling, half frowning. Liz reached Max’s shoulder with her hand.

“Hey… don’t worry so much. Things are going… fine… so far, so stop worrying like this, okay? You make me feel guilty about it. I’m the one suppose to be worrying like that, not you.”

“You’re not worried about it?” Max asked, his eyebrows going up. Liz couldn’t tell if he was joking or was seriously surprised by her words.

“A little bit… but at least I’m not having a nightmare about it…” Liz said, snuggling to him. There just wasn’t a better place on Earth to be than in Max’s embrace.

“Did I awake you?” Max asked above a whisper, soothing her back so she could go back to sleep.

“Nah, I awoke from a dream myself. It was something about school actually…” Lifting her face so she could look at him, Liz frowned. “You know, I never got to know how you and Kyle finished that History assignment…”

“Uh?” Max asked, opening his already closed eyes. “What History assignment?”

“The one about the questions, right in Sophmore year. You know, I was paired with Isabel and Maria with Michael…”

Max winced. “What are you trying to do? Give me another nightmare?” Max joked, making her laughed. She had finished her interview with Isabel before going to bed on that Aladdin motel –she knew the name wasn’t Aladdin, but Maria’s continuous reference to it as that was all Liz could remember of how it was actually called. They had taken Maria’s assignment and scribble down each other’s answer on napkins. She had then transcribed them right before class. Isabel had just waved her hand over it, making Liz wished she had powers of her own. Gee, it had been a wise man whoever had said “be careful what you wish for”…

“It was the weirdest thing ever,” Max said, trying to suppress a yawn. They had stayed awake till pretty late before going to bed, and both had to be in two different places soon. “I mean, I had resigned myself to not present it at all, but then Kyle just came out of nowhere and stood in front of my locker. And then, he just started with the next question we had. It took me about three seconds to figure out Kyle was in some kind of truce-limbo or whatever, so I answered him while taking my own assignment out.”

“You and Kyle made a two minutes truce over a History assignment?” Liz asked, smiling at that picture, especially remembering her conversation with Kyle at the Janitors closet right before class, which had given her anything but smiles at that time...

“Don’t look at me. I’m not the one who started it.” Max said, yawning again. This time Liz yawned too.

“Well, Kyle did sort of need all the help he could get with History. Certainly not his favorite subject. He barely passed it that year, if I remember correctly. He could barely take that final test, especially knowing three of his classmates were aliens…”

Kyle had barely looked at her, or any of them for that matter, all that week. He had been totally freaked out, so all of them had just stayed away of his path. If Kyle had wanted to talk, he would have chosen when and how. Besides, they all had had their own problems to deal with, and their own persons to avoid, Liz shamefully thought, so Kyle had been just another thing to panic about before she could actually take the first plane to Florida after her last test.

“I don’t know how we made it that week…” Max said, embracing Liz a little bit harder, Liz ignoring her sore muscles. “So much could have gone so wrong…” Max gave a long sigh, making Liz think that her husband wasn’t sure this week was any different from that of three years ago. “I really don’t know how we made it that week,” Max silently repeated in the dark.

“Just like we are doing now,” Liz answered sounding confident, “one day at a time.”

* * *

Isabel opened her eyes in frustration. It wasn’t even 5:00 a.m. so why hadn’t it worked? For the past two days she had been trying to dreamwalk Dave, despite Max’s warning about dreamwalking anyone outside their circle. Especially since they had agreed that they would “admit” Tess had had the power of dreamwalking. Kyle had already told Dave it had been Tess who had found Max, and who had found Lauree Dupree later on… If Dave saw her and remembered her on his dreams, he could connect the dots… But she just needed a glimpse to make sure things were according to plan. Maybe catch something useful too, something about where they could begin to look for Dave’s past and secrets.

Dreams were confusing at best on any people’s head, Isabel knew better than anyone on this planet, but they always had something significant. And that something was what Isabel was trying to get a glimpse of. She wasn’t going to stay more than thirty seconds on that man’s head so he wouldn’t think it odd she was there to begin with. But the problem was that Isabel couldn’t get into his dreams. It was as if he hadn’t been sleeping at all, and that was just impossible. She had been trying to dreamwalk him once every hour since 10 o’clock. If he went to sleep early or late, she would have caught him no matter what.

Of course, what Isabel didn’t know was that Dave wasn’t sleeping according to U.S. time zones. For him, lunch time was actually diner time. Before he had been called to be notified the kids were going to be taken the next day, Dave had been on Berlin, closing another deal. It always took him a long time to get adjust to the new time zones when he was traveling. Except that this time he hadn’t even bother with trying because by the end of the week, he was going back to see if things had gone right with his new deal on the European country.

So, by 4:49 am, - 11:49 am, Berlin time- Dave was happily putting his puzzle together while going over a million details on his head about the things he had to do while being on Minnesota, as far away from sleeping as one could get.

But because Isabel didn’t know this –none of them did- she was seriously starting to freak out about why Dave was –apparently- undreamwalkable. Gosh, was that even a word? Isabel thought staring at the ceiling. She had been able to dreamwalk since she was twelve, and though she had practically not used that power more than three or four times before Max healed Liz, she had gotten a lot better in the short time between dreamwalking Max to save him and this night. And it was getting easier with every time she tried it.

So… why wasn’t she able to dreamwalk Dave? Okay, she didn’t have a picture of him, but he wasn’t all that far away to begin with… Maybe he was out of reach because he left the place during the night… Or maybe… maybe Dave was also an alien? The thought came so suddenly that made Isabel’s sleepiness go away in a second. Could that be it? She couldn’t dreamwalk Dave because he wasn’t human? Granted, the only “alien” she had ever dreamwalk was her brother, and Max wasn’t exactly 100% alien either… Isabel went cold. What would be the implications if Dave weren’t human?

No… he had to be human, right? But as Isabel went through her mind about what they knew about Dave, there wasn’t anything definitive about Dave’s species status… It could explain why he wasn’t sleeping at night… Could there be any other explanation to why she wasn’t able to dreamwalk him?

Isabel bit her lower lip, in an almost perfect imitation of Liz’s nervous habit. So, if she couldn’t dreamwalk Dave, maybe she could find out the truth about his origins by dreamwalking his best friend… Wasn’t that what Ray had told them? That Dave and Jake had been friends forever? Sure Jake would know…

Except that dreamwalking Jake felt… even more dangerous. It was tempting, but the reason she hadn’t even try it once yet was because Jake could be more incline to notice things out of place in his dreams and to somehow link her presence there to her actual powers… it was a very long shot, she knew, but she couldn’t risk it, at least not yet, not when Jake was asking them all about their powers and had that on his mind. She would let some time pass before going into his dreams, assuming, of course, the guy actually slept… Because there was the very real possibility that Jake was just like Dave…

Isabel didn’t like this. Didn’t like it at all… All these doubts… They had assumed Dave was human because his story made sense from a human point of view, but then again, Kal Langley had lived on Earth for more than 50 years as a human being too… Dave could just happen to be another alien who had taken an interest on them… After all, he knew about the seal…

The more and more she thought about it, the more and more she was tempted to dreamwalk Jake, but then, a second thought occurred to her: There was also Ray.

* * *

“You’re insane,” Ray simply said, not kidding, but not really worried either. A man who was stating the obvious.

Jake chocked. “Well, they do say there’s a thin line between being a genius and being a nuts, but I though Dave was our resident wacko…”

“Dave is not asking me to teach them how to escape,” Ray emphasized. What the hell was wrong with good ole Jake? Had he really lost it? Ray was certainly managing all the pressure he could get with the human side of the group, and now Jake wanted him to teach the rest of them to escape? “I mean, did you even tell Dave you were planning this?” Ray said, frowning, a man in total disbelief.

“Sure I did, yesterday afternoon while you were looking at the new security systems. I admit it, he didn’t take it well at first, but you are taking it worse. Worse than him and worse that I had anticipated. What’s the matter?”

“What’s the matter?” Ray asked bewildered, “Do you have any idea what those kids can do?”

“An idea, yes. But so far that’s all that I have…” Jake cryptically answered. “But come on, Ray, you know these kids better than I do, and I do feel comfortable with this plan. It will help them, it will help me, we’ll all get something out of it. It’s perfect.” Jake ended, shrugging, smiling. Well, maybe Jake couldn’t see it, but Ray knew the doc had, indeed, finally lost it.

“Jake, look, you’re right, I know what they can do, and sometimes I even got a glimpse of it myself when I was watching them, so trust me, the last thing I want to do is being in a room with those three, asking them to blow anything but me. So, thanks, but no thanks.”

“But you said it yourself right before they got here: They are good kids. Or is there something you are not telling me?” Jake asked, a little bit disappointed that Ray wasn’t exactly thrilled about his idea. Of course, since lately no one seemed to be thrilled with any of his ideas, Jake was thinking that this was getting old…

“Jake, doc, I got to spend five hours with Liz, Maria and Kyle everyday. So far, it has been just two days, and they are still as tense as if they were sticks. So, what that tells me is that you can’t be having a party down there either. They are just about to snap at the first wrong word, and frankly, I don’t want to be the poor twig that is going to be broken when they finally let go of all this tension and stress. Why do you think I stay as far away from your place as possible?”

Jake smiled a malicious smile. “I thought that was because Samantha’s lab is just right around the corner…” Ray blushed, and God, did he hate to blush.

“Well, no. Of course not. I figured that the last thing they would want to see is two of us with them at the Lab. Which is exactly what will happen if I say ‘yes’ to this ‘plan’ of yours.” Ray said, hoping he had successfully changed the subject.

Jake looked thoughtful. “Okay,” he said, slowly thinking the whole thing through, “there are still a lot of things to plan out, especially once Dave goes away leaving just the two of us here, but I’m sure we can work something out.”

Ray sighed. Why couldn’t Jake just see that the last thing these kids needed was two people watching them at all times? And gosh, why did Jake had to chose today of all days to share his thoughts with him? It was barely 5:49 in the morning and he had barely slept at all to begin with.

Of course, since Jake didn’t need to sleep all that much, he had come to his place when Ray was just coming out of his latest dream. And so he was tire, and had not slept well, not only because he was tense, but because he had had one of the weirdest dreams ever too. So, Ray still needed to shower, shave and have breakfast to feel part of the waking world again, and because he hadn’t done anything of those things, he was beginning to wonder that the one who wasn’t understanding what was being said was him and not Jake.

“You look tired, Ray,” Jake said, carefully watching him. “You didn’t sleep well?”

“Jake, do you know what day is today?” Ray tiredly asked him.

“Sure, Wednesday, February 5th. Want me to tell you the year too?” Jake joked, Ray didn’t even try to smile.

“You do know that Liz’s meeting is today, right? I’m not exactly looking forward to deal with Maria, but she had been a pretty good sport so far, just as Kyle was yesterday, but you, my friend… You I don’t envy at all…” Jake frowned, clearly not understanding where he was going. “You’ll get to have Max with you, and that’s the reason number one I’m so not accepting your idea: Max worried about Liz, or Michael worried about Maria… no thanks. I’ll take Samantha any given day given the choice. That’s how much I want to avoid those kids concerning their powers.”

Jake rolled his eyes. “They are not ‘powers’, you know. It’s not as if they were wizards with magic wands or anything like that… They are just using a part of—” Jake stopped himself. “As if you were interested… But Ray, they accepted, and Dave said it was okay, just that we should take it slowly. Come on, I really need your knowledge on this kind of stuff.”

Ray was still unconvinced. “Jake, look, you are a great buddy, but if I’m having weird dreams now about them, I don’t even want to think what is going to happen to me if I’m actually working with them.”

“Weird dreams?” Jake asked, clearly not thinking that the rest of the sentence had any relevance. But then again, if Jake was interested in Zodiac Signs, surely enough he was taking an interest on how to interpret dreams as well…

“Oh no, don’t go all Freudian on me, Jake. I had enough with all that ‘you’re a Scorpios’ crap, so don’t start trying to analyze my dreams now.” Ray defensively said.

“I’m just asking, that’s all,” Jake shrugged. “You know I’m not that kind of doctor. I don’t ‘analyze’ dreams. But you seem pretty tense,” Jake ended, apparently a little bit offended by Ray’s denial to tell him what his dreams were about. Gees, sometimes the doc could be really sensitive about unimportant stuff like this.

“It was no big deal,” Ray started, shrugging as well, “and it was actually kind of funny too. Something about if you and Dave were aliens. I’m telling you, Jake, this whole thing, is messing up with my head way too much. Especially since Isabel kept asking me that…”

“Isabel?” Jake asked.

“Yeah, she was in my dream too. So, you see? I’m now dreaming that they are the ones asking if you are the aliens. Though sometimes I do believe Dave comes from another planet when he just says things out of the blue…”

Jake smiled, clearly used to Dave’s sudden ideas, though he seemed thoughtful. “Yeah, I see your point,” he absently said, “but could you at least help me to plan this thing out. Maybe you’ll warm up to the idea once you see I’m in one piece by the end of the week.”

Ray sighed, a defeated sigh. “As long as it is just you and not them… Are you sure you don’t want to take the day off today? I don’t think Dave would mind…”

“Yes, he would, and I would too. Anyway, we need to start planning then.”

“What, you mean like now?”

“Sure thing,” Jake said, raising his arm to look at his watch. “Though, we should send a message. This might take a little more time than we actually have.

* * *

Max was running. He wasn’t sure from what, or why, but he knew he wanted to be running. It had started with reaching a mail box, but now he just wanted to keep running. He felt so free, so incredible free by just moving forward and forward. He felt his lungs expand and then letting go the air in a perfect rhythm. He felt the rush of the air and heard the wind whispering as he was flying by. He kept running, thinking things so clearly now. They would go away, and no one would ever find them. She would run with him, be free with him, and he wouldn’t hide, they wouldn’t hide. He just had to tell her…

He just had to tell her…

He just had to tell her and them. Max’s running didn’t feel freeing anymore. He had to reach them, and now he wasn’t running nearly fast enough. Someone was dead, or was going to die, or both. His mind wasn’t clear anymore either. He couldn’t think straight. He was running to warn them, that much he knew. He was running through the streets of Roswell, at night, but things were so wrong. Didn’t anyone see it? Couldn’t they see that the world had so drastically changed? That no one was safe? Of course they didn’t see it. They weren’t after anyone but the people Max cared about. And that people was across of town, on a restaurant he had seen his entire life, and had passed half of it in.

He had to warn her.

Liz wasn’t safe, his family wasn’t safe, no one who knew him was safe. Max kept running, in his dream the streets getting impossibly long, the night so dark he could barely make the corners. He stumbled and fell, but he didn’t care. If he didn’t reach the Crashdown Café soon, someone else would reach it, and that someone else would be able to erase from existence everyone he cared about. So he kept running, his breathing now frenetically coming out in gasps, his rhythm anything but perfect. Someone had died in his arms, and nothing he had tried to do had helped. He had been helpless, and, as amazingly as it was, he had also been powerless. All the things he could do and yet he hadn’t been able to heal. Something as natural to him as to feel other people’s energy flowing and fixing that flowing when it was disrupted, and he hadn’t been able to…

Max had to protect Liz, and that was all he could think of as the Crashdown Café was finally coming to his view, the cars coming from both sides of the street. He barely noticed them, he just crossed, reaching with all his will the doors—

And then a loud beep went off.

Max woke up as if he were coming out of a very deep dive. He took air by his mouth as if he were taking air for the first time in four minutes, feeling for one instant that he was falling into nothingness, just to realize he wasn’t, the bed feeling extremely solid beneath him. His heart was also beating as if he were coming from a marathon. A second later, he turned to his side, instinctively knowing that Liz wasn’t there. The light coming from the bathroom told him where his wife was, and trying to calm himself down, Max started to take deep slow breaths, fixing his eyes on the ceiling.

It was now 6:04 in the morning, his alarm clock waiting one more minute to go on. What had been the beep then if not his alarm? Max looked at his own night table, his G.E.S. glowing in blue. A message had been sent.

“Change of hour. Meet me at 8:00 am. Sorry for the short notice. Jake.”

Max put the G.E.S. on the table, letting himself fell back into the bed. He had barely slept at all, so he was somehow grateful for the extra hour, but he knew he wouldn’t sleep. And even if he did manage to fall asleep, it would be into another one of these nightmares that had plagued his dreams all night long. They all had to do with Liz, and the fact that he couldn’t reach her. He had to warn her, he had to tell her that something was wrong… The frustrating part was that all his dreams had been about situations that had been real on their past. None of his fears were illusions or fantasies he had made. Not even paranoia. There was always someone in the shadows, waiting for them to make a mistake…

Was Dave another mistake? Was he another ‘someone waiting in the shadows’? Max closed his eyes, barely regaining a normal breathing pattern. If Dave was another mistake or not was still to be proven, but Max knew that if they were on the road, things wouldn’t be much different. Not after the FBI had almost caught them, and certainly not after Dave had caught them just to let them go three days later.

Max told himself that it was about time he let go of the “what if’s” and that he had to start dealing with the “what next’s”. They had made a choice, period. Dave had been playing with them, just as Michael had said, but Max didn’t think Dave was playing with them now. Sure, Dave had motivations Max couldn’t see, but one thing was true: Dave couldn’t afford to keep playing with them if he wanted them to willingly stay.

Closing his eyes and taking a last deep breath, Max finally calmed himself down. Whatever was on Dave’s mind had to be big, Max thought for the millionth time. It had to be big because Dave had gone into so much trouble. Dave had been planning on how to get them for a long time, because he had set things on motion long before now. Max frowned. But for how long had Dave been on their backs? Two years, as he had said? Dave’s account of events did sound plausible, but that didn’t mean it was the truth.

He sighed. What had changed Dave’s plans about spying on them to actually “bring” them here? They were being chased, but still… seven months seemed like an incredible amount of time to just wait and see, and that was an amusing thought coming from someone who was always accused with just wait and see. Whatever Dave wanted, Max thought, it wasn’t something that happened over night, but it stroke Max that Dave had made this decision about bringing them here in a little bit of haste. The thought was contradictory, Max knew, but something had changed the night they had fled from their graduation ceremony. The Special Unit was part of it, of course, but something else had been the trigger to settle this entire thing in motion, because if the Special Unit had been all Dave’s trouble, Dave would have approached them a hell lot earlier with nothing remotely as elaborated with what Dave had done now.

Whatever was on Dave’s mind, Max thought again, had to be more than big. He had planned their hiding so carefully, from their disappearance to the little details of their daily lives. From making no one on this place give them a second glance to arranging their stories for the people who would work with them… It was way too planned out for someone who just wanted to make them feel safe, and whose only reward would be to study them. But what else was there? Right now Max wasn’t exactly feeling safe, so how could he hope to see anything else beyond that?

Well, at least there was a somewhat comforting thought out of this: If they were so big for Dave, at least that ensure they would be protected, if only for the wrong reasons. Max let go a long sigh. As he had said when they had first arrived, this place was a shelter.

“I see you talked yourself out of it,” Liz said with a smile, her eyes still sleepy despite the shower she had taken, her bare feet making no sound on the carpeted floor. She was wearing a towel on her head, and a gray sweater with blue pants which made her look so comfortable and plain simple perfect. Her scent filled the room. God, that smell could drive him nuts, but all he did was to smile back. Liz overpowered him with such simple act as to stand in front of him, and he wondered if she was aware of that. How she could melt him with just a smile.

Liz bit her lip and sheepishly smiled. “What?” She asked too aware of Max staring at her.

“You’re beautiful, you know that?” Max said, extending an arm for Liz to lay right beside him. Liz’s smiled turned into a grin, and she went to him, wet tower and hair now over Max’s arm.

“So, what was worrying you so much?” Liz asked, tucking herself below the sheets. “I almost went out of the shower twice when all those feelings came through...”

Max arched his eyebrows, and a mischievous smile crossed his lips. Liz just pouted at him. “You’re not getting that easily out of the topic.” Max sighed, closing his eyes, savoring the pleasure of having Liz on his arms.

“I was worrying about you. You and all these situations I have gotten you into, including this one.” Liz tried to say something, but Max carried on. “It doesn’t matter that you chose to be with me, it doesn’t matter that all I want in the world is for you to be happy. Being with me will always put you in danger, and you just can’t ask me to not worry. Because I will.”

Another beep went out before Liz could reply anything. Max turned to look at his G.E.S. and so did Liz. But this time, it was hers the one that was glowing. Moving to get it, Liz disentangled herself from him.

“I got a message from Jake about five minutes before,” Max said, watching as Liz picked up the device. “He said we will start at 8.”

“Lucky you,” Liz said frowning while reading. “This is from Dave,” Max tensed. What now? “He says that I should bring a sweater.”

“A sweater? Why? Is he thinking to get you out?” Max said, worry in his eyes.

“Well, I would think he would say something about that if that were the case. It’s snowing out there…” Liz bit her lip again. “I mean, I would need something more than just a sweater, right? It’s probably nothing.”

Max looked unconvinced, and for the next forty minutes, he practically became Liz’s shadow, whether they were eating breakfast, or she was combing her hair or just making the bed together. He just couldn’t unglue his eyes from her. What was in store for his wife once she went up that elevator? Gosh, how could he even allow her to go up there? From all the times he had wanted to warn her, all the times he had run because he had to tell her, now that he was with her, there was nothing he could do. All there was left once he saw her as the elevator doors closed was to trust they had made the right choice in trusting this man, and by his life, if Dave did as much as said something wrong to her, Max wouldn’t have mercy with him.

TBC..

Author’s note: The bit about how Liz reacted to Max healing her, and how the world was just “wrong” was inspired in part by Liz’s reaction from the Roswell High Book #1, The Outsider.

The idea of how Max and Kyle actually got to finish their History assignment came to me after reading those assignments completed on the internet, which were hilarious. If you haven’t read those, I can send them to you

Post by **Ti88** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 10:45 pm

does a little happy dance. i'm the right track am i. go me.

um its snowing like in the compound? very interesting with everything thats going on. a sweater...is this one of those beware of greeks bearing gifts things?

Misha · Post by **Misha** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 10:42 pm

Thank you for coming back to read!

I want to give a special THANKS! to RoswieGoof who took the time to edit this and the upcoming chapters! Don't worry girl! I won't go running away from you, no matter how many correction you send! (and somehow I bet you are correcting this last paragraph as well 8) )

Ti88, go you!! heheheh The sweater mystery will be solved in just a minute

XVI
Cracks

Liz arrived just in time. She liked being punctual –it showed respect for the other person, regardless of whoever that other person was- and despite the apprehension she felt about this coming… appointment, she still had done everything to be right on time.

She had found the door slightly open –she had guessed it was like that so she would see where the door was- and had stood two feet away from it for a whole minute. Take a deep breath and just get in, she had coached herself. Besides, if Michael had left this place in one piece, sure enough it couldn’t be that bad, right?

She desperately hoped the answer was “right”.

So she walked the short distance and pushed the door open all the way. She had had a mental picture of Dave’s office, but neither Kyle nor Michael had elaborated too much on the details. Liz noticed those details only because Dave was standing, watching something out the window with his back to her.

Dave’s office was carpeted in a deep blue-greenish color. His dark desk was the size of a dining room table for eight, and it looked as if it were made of a very heavy wood. It was covered with a thick dark glass as well, which reflected the white light coming from the ceiling’s only large light bulb.

His famous puzzle was taking form on the bottom part of it, obviously the place where Dave had been working on it. But now she understood why Dave was able to take piece after piece and place them so fast, as both Michael and Kyle had said. It was because the pieces were already separated into colors and similar textures. He didn’t have to lose time in searching and searching all the sky pieces from the sand pieces and the plant ones. They were scattered in various tiny hills inside the already assembled edge.

Liz could see too that the puzzle was an oasis just about to be engulfed by a desert storm, the dust cloud looking every bit as menacing as if it were alive, a real dust monster taking his lunch. The curious thing was that when Kyle had told them it was a puzzle about a desert storm, she had assumed it was a rock desert, like the one she had lived in her entire life. But it wasn’t. It was the Sahara type of desert, dune after dune.

She glanced to her right where the numbers were on the wall, and as Kyle did before her, she thought it odd, but nothing remotely stirred inside her like it had with Michael.

Dave turned to look at her, making Liz realize he was wearing a sweater too. A gray, wool handmade sweater that made his hazel eyes look more clear, almost honey-like. How many secrets did those eyes conceal? Liz could only imagine, but she had to give credit to the man for the fact that, under different circumstances, Liz would never guess this man was capable of making six kids disappear into the night without anyone –including said kids- knowing it.

“Want some hot chocolate?” Dave said, placing his own mug on the table, the hot chocolate still steaming. As Liz entered the room before answering, she did notice the room’s temperature was colder in here than in any other place in the complex. And the explanation to this was just in plain sight.

The window that was behind Dave was actually divided in 2 by 2 foot squares separated by thin, black, metal lines, and the last square at the bottom left was shattered in a million pieces to the exact point it was still holding on but a simple sneeze would definitely break it apart.

Following her gaze, Dave looked behind him and smiled. Then, turning to look at her, his smile still in place, he said by way of a joke: “Never piss off Michael.” Liz’s eyebrows shot skyward, her eyes round too, almost in a perfect imitation of Maria’s gesture of disbelief.

“Michael was just making a point I’d better not forget,” Dave said calmly, “but he certainly screwed up my cozy environment in here.” Dave walked to his right –Liz’s left- toward the cupboard. “And I won’t order it repaired until your husband has been here, because I get the feeling I’ll end up with more than just one glass shattered if I don’t watch my mouth these next days. So, hot chocolate?”

Liz’s eyes hadn’t unglued themselves from him until his last comment about the window not being in one piece after Max had been here. Her eyes then turned to the shattered glass at the bottom. What had Dave said to Michael? And why had Michael chosen not to tell them that?

Her eyes finally moved from that particular spot and turned to Dave, who was patiently waiting for her answer about whether she wanted hot chocolate or not. How different from the Dave of her dreams, tapping and tapping his pencil on the counter.

“No, thank you,” Liz finally managed to say, regaining her composure. So, Dave wanted to talk, then they would talk, but she wasn’t planning on saying one more word than necessary. She sat on the chair in front of her –a black, leathered chair with a high back. It was very comfortable too. Dave’s chair was exactly like hers.

“Okay,” Dave said, taking a small bag of marshmallows from the cupboard. “Maybe later,” he added, shrugging a little. He deliberately took his time to get to the desk, open the bag and place a handful of marshmallows inside his mug, all the time gazing at what he was doing and at her. He’s waiting for me to talk, Liz thought, trying very hard to not bite her lower lip. Well, then you are in for a long wait.

As casually as he had picked up the marshmallows, Dave slid his left hand into his left pocket and took something out of it, something small and transparent from what Liz could see. He put it on the desk and pushed it so the object would slide in a straight line to her, without touching a single piece of the puzzle on the desk. She followed it with her gaze during the short distance –around 7 feet- and it stopped right in front of her. Liz’s eyes widened as she realized what it was.

“You have the key,” she said, almost above a whisper, her mind racing with images of the “diamond” she and Max had stolen. On that same second she also thought of the fact that if Dave had it, how much did this man know and what did it mean and the things—

“That’s what it is?” Dave asked, taking his seat, stirring marshmallows into his hot chocolate with a silver spoon, as calm as he always seemed to be. “We had no idea why the heck you guys wanted it so badly… Certainly you weren’t after the diamond itself.”

“You didn’t know—but—why do you have it then?” Liz asked astonished. Was Dave telling the truth about not knowing the diamond was a key, or was he just fooling around?

“No. I didn’t know the original was a key. This is your replica…” Dave said, pausing to take a sip, Liz’s eyes never leaving the diamond which wasn’t the diamond. “Let me explain,” Dave said when he saw her confused look. “The first time I saw you, Liz, it was at a party. Gosh, I had to sneak away from Ray’s watching eyes to get to Las Cruces on time. I should add that I went to there against my own wishes and words about being that close to you. But I wanted to see you and Max in person. Not up close, but from afar. I just… well, I just had to know why you were going to… assist at a diamond exhibition.”

“You were there?” Liz asked, frowning, her mind racing through her memory. Had she seen Dave that night?

“As far away from you as I could get, but yes, I was there... I had to arrange a lot of things for you to be there as well. Didn’t you ever wonder why you weren’t stopped at the exit when you were leaving? Or why you could get that job so easily?”

Liz couldn’t speak for ten seconds; but finally she managed to look him straight in the eye. “It was all you? You arranged it?”

“Well, yeah, you got the better of my curiosity. I had to see what you were up to,” Dave said, smiling a little, his eyes pinned on the marshmallows circling in his mug. “Want to hear a funny story? Delores Browning is one of the most… how to say it… umm… arrogant women I have ever met, and that’s saying a lot. So when you and Max applied to work at her exhibition with all her diamonds, I had to make up this elaborate story about this girl who I wanted to impress. ‘You can expect anything to happen, Delores’, I told her, ‘because I want to impress her so badly’. She thought I was talking about her, of course. I, on the other hand, didn’t know what to expect from you. Thank you for not disappointing me, though.” Dave ended, gesturing with his mug as if he were going to make a toast, nodding a little.

Liz lowered her eyes to the desk, to no point in particular, remembering that exhilarating night a year and a half ago. They had planned every step, every word she was going to say. Max had come up with the idea, Liz had played along. But even when she was actually insulting “the” Delores Browning, Liz couldn’t believe herself. She was actually deceiving someone, looking so crazy, yelling and throwing Chapman to this woman… But somehow, it had been all because Dave had allowed it, hadn’t it? Their getting the job, being allowed to leave so soon, without too many questions… This time, Liz did bite her lower lip.

“Oh, come on,” Dave said leaning over his desk. “It was brilliant! For one moment there you truly fooled me, and I knew a lot more than anyone in that room.” Liz looked at him, her mind not quite clear, memories of that night, that entire scene still playing in her mind.

“And then Max caught in mid-air a diamond that couldn’t break to begin with. That’s what made me curious. Of course, Mrs. Browning was fuming so bad you wouldn’t believe what she charged me for the… I guess ‘fake’ diamond you kids left behind.”

“You bought it,” Liz said, not asking, there was no point in that. The diamond was right in front of her.

“Of course I did. I wasn’t surprised when it was confirmed that the ‘diamond’ wasn’t a real diamond… But until today I had no idea why it was so important you would take such risks in stealing it,” Dave said, raising an eyebrow as a matter of emphasizing his last statement. “So, what does it open?”

Liz blinked, Dave’s eyes pinned on hers. “Well, you said it’s a key. A key to what?” Dave asked anxiously, like a kid waiting for a gift. And this Dave did look a lot like the one she had dreamed of, ready to shred anything that was placed in his hands, napkins or otherwise. And yet, she remained silent. She had barely said two complete sentences since she had gotten here and Dave already knew about the key. No, she was not going to talk further. Maybe she could just sit in silence for the next four hours or so… Darn it! Why couldn’t she just break a glass and be over with it?

Dave seemed to understand this and tried to conceal his disappointment as well as he could. Sighing, he let go of his excitement. “You know, that wasn’t the only time you kids didn’t plan out every detail as you should have.”

Liz frowned. “What do you mean?” she asked, her mind racing again. What now? Where and when else?

“Do you remember your hearing, Liz?”

“You were also in the court room in Utah?” Liz asked again. In how many places had this man actually been?

“No, of course not,” Dave said smiling. “But if you remember correctly, well, they found hair follicles…” it seemed to Liz that frowning was becoming a habit on this room because she just couldn’t stop doing it. For the tenth time that morning she frowned again. Where was Dave going with this? She remembered Max’s father saying something about DNA from hair follicles not being submitted as evidence in Utah, but frankly, it was all very vague in her mind now.

“Do you have any idea what would have happened if Max’s DNA had been found in that crime scene?” Dave asked, all serious now, clearly knowing Liz had not thought about that at all. None of them had. She remembered Phillip Evans saying that the only evidence there was consisted of “strands of hair”… But in the end it had been her voice and height that had made the judge rule against her. As the memory of that disastrous day became clearer in her mind, she remembered that strands of hair weren’t allowed as evidence.

“You, or more likely, Max, are so lucky the state of Utah didn’t allow DNA from hair follicles as evidence in your particular case or he would still be in custody right now, and not exactly the police kind of custody.” Placing both his hands around his mug, which was now over his desk, he continued, “I learned a lot of Utah’s law system with you two, but the fact remained that Max’s DNA was bagged somewhere in the criminal investigation section, bagged for further procedure if there needed to be one more look at it. Frankly, they weren’t going to be accepted anyway, of course, but the threat still remained…”

“Remained…” Liz said almost above a whisper, fearing for something that hadn’t happened, and yet, she couldn’t shake the thought of… custody.

“Remained, yeah. It was all taken care of as soon as it was possible. You kids have placed yourselves in so many dangers in such a short time, it was almost as if you wanted to be in danger… I liked it better when your biggest crime was leaving for Vegas…”

Liz swallowed hard. How long—how many times had he— What was she supposed to say now? “Thank you”?

“Is there something you don’t know?” She briefly closed her eyes, and embrace herself for God knew what.

“Plenty,” Dave said. “Like what that key opens, for instance… Or the fact that it is a key to begin with… Or why you didn’t tell anyone about Max… Or why you married him despite everything that commitment requires. I don’t know a million things, Liz. And I want to know. I want to know about the woman who married someone that, according to modern science, shouldn’t be here. I want to know about you, the girl who made a boy from another planet fall in love with her so badly he risked everything he had to risk.”

Despite herself, Liz blushed. She didn’t want to, indeed, but Dave’s words were true. She had asked Max why he had fallen in love with her more than once, and all Max had done was shrug and say I could tell you a million reasons and more, but the fact is that it was you, all of you. There just aren’t rules for love, Liz silently thought. Dave just looked at her, almost as if he were amused by watching her think. But for an instant there Liz saw him glancing at his puzzle, almost as if he were mentally putting pieces together. Liz wondered if he was grasping his mug so tight because he couldn’t actually reach the pieces with his hand.

“You want to keep putting pieces together, don’t you?” Liz asked with a side smile, almost with pride. After all, she had caught him.

Busted, Dave noticed Liz watching him a second too late. It was his turn to blush, and Liz was surprised by that. After all, as far as she knew, blushing wasn’t something a person could fake.

Smiling, and a little bit embarrassed, Dave stood up, taking his mug with him, and slowly turned around, standing in front of the window. “It’s easier with boys to show indifference and just keep putting it all together,” Dave said, turning his head to look at her and gesturing to join him, “they are more comfortable with it. But women! Ah, women would feel outraged if they don’t have your complete attention. So, yes, I’m itching to put pieces together, but I know better.”

Unsure of what to do, Liz finally stood up and cautiously walked to stand beside him. Every step she walked it felt more and more as if she were entering some forbidden place, or more likely, a lion’s den. “Besides,” Dave continued, now looking out the window, “there are other things that capture my mind just as badly as puzzles.”

It was snowing out there, Liz could see now that she was standing in front of the window herself, feeling a slight air current coming from her left, the place where –apparently- Michael had shattered the glass. But out there, where everything was white snow over white snow, everything seemed so… peaceful. No one was walking around, so the snow was untouched, and snowflake after snowflake passed in front of her on the other side of the window, eerily illuminated by a bluish light somewhere above the window outside. It seemed to Liz that it had been ages since she had just stared at snow falling like that with no hurry.

“Why have you been after us all this time?” Liz suddenly asked, with such calmness that if she had said “how beautiful the snow looks” it would have sounded exactly the same. But Liz had to know. What were they to him? A project? A hobby? For all the things he kept saying there just didn’t seem to be a consistent pattern in here. First, he didn’t want to be seen with them, but noe he’s deciding what to do with them? What had changed his mind?

“Well,” Dave said, his eyes not leaving the outside world, “Why not?”

Liz stared at him. What was with Dave that he took this entire situation so lightly? He had assured them he had never been in Roswell, but yet he had wanted to see them so he had done so outside of Roswell. He had, indeed, stayed out of her hometown almost as if it were forbidden for him to be there.

“Why didn’t you just contact us?” Liz asked getting into her logic, knowing it was going to be the only way to get some answers of her own. What Liz didn’t know was that Dave was so used to playing against logic it was practically second nature to him. After all, logic had a pattern, and everything Dave had done from the first moment he could remember was search for patterns and –as he had been taught later on- to crash them.

“Honestly? I didn’t know how. As I told Kyle, I didn’t want to… well, mess with your lives. And by the time I finally made up my mind, I was too late. You were no longer in Roswell. It became incredibly complicated to approach you then. Not that it was easy to begin with, mind you.” Dave said, glancing at her before sipping his hot chocolate.

“So you just waited seven months to put on that show? You know, with the rooms and everything?” Liz said, suddenly feeling cold and somehow unprotected standing beside this man, this stranger. There was something just downright unsettling about talking to a man who had their lives hanging on a string.

“Seven months was never the plan,” Dave said, though Liz didn’t know if he had said it thoughtfully, seriously, or both.

“So you had a plan all that time?”

“A plan that you kids kept trashing, if I might add. But in the long run, I guess it had its benefits. You gave me more than enough time to make corrections and settle other things down here in the complex.”

“Wait a second,” Liz said, raising one of her eyebrows, her previous helpless feeling fading away. Now she was trying to catch the slightest crack in Dave’s statements. “What do you mean we ‘kept trashing your plans’?”

* * *

There were, indeed, other things that captured his mind as badly as puzzles, and Liz Parker Evans was one of those.

Dave turned to look at her, a little bit amused, a little bit surprised, but completely proud. He had been giving her cracks throughout all his statements just to see if she would catch them, but she was scared and confused, so her mind hadn’t been clear, until now.

“You were supposed to be brought here six weeks ago, but a snow storm made that impossible,” Dave told her, leaning on the desk, his eyes lost outside the window. God, he loved to see snow falling so badly. “And then you kept moving, separating. You were hard to locate, and it was practically impossible to predict your next move.” Dave said, still not looking at her.

Liz leaned over the desk as well, her eyes turning to the falling snow. He couldn’t know that Liz was thinking the reason it had been “practically impossible to predict” their future goings was because Kyle kept flipping a coin in the air to decide their next move. Completely random… completely chaotic for anyone who had been searching for a pattern on their movements. Of course, more than once, Maria, Isabel and herself had punched him hard for guiding them into The-Middle-Of-Nowhere Town.

“And the FBI was always getting closer to you…” Dave said, getting more serious now. He had to make her see –make them see- how much danger their lives had been in. Not only because it would make them feel safer down here, making them feel his offer was their best decision, but because once they got out there again, it wouldn’t be much different. They had to see their past mistakes in order to not repeat them.

“You really didn’t know about the FBI Special Unit until later on?” Liz asked, her eyes not seeing the snow, just looking outside, fearful for one of the worst threats to her life and everyone’s lives in her group.

“I really didn’t know,” Dave sincerely answered. Kyle, Michael and now her had all asked him why he hadn’t come to them sooner, before the Army, before everything had gone to hell, and that meant they weren’t buying the fact that he hadn’t known what to do with them back then. That little explanation wasn’t the truth, but he just wasn’t going to change his version now. However, the other thing this “revelation” told him was that they perceive him, in some twisted way, as some sort of guardian. A protector. And he was protecting them, of course, protecting them from the outside world and all its dangers, but… in the long term, it wasn’t going to be protection he would give them.

“Are you really going to dissipate them? Take them off our backs?” Liz asked, not even glancing at him, her eyes still watching the outside world as a bird in a cage watches its freedom so close and yet so far.

“I’m sure going to try,” Dave said, knowing as well as Liz did that his words were meaningless. Whether he dissipated them or not would be something they would know with time. Right now, they were just empty words. But, even if there was no way he could really prove it to Liz, Dave hoped that she believed him because he was dissipating them, just very slowly. Just in the only way he had been able to do so.

“And you are not going to hurt him?” Liz asked, this time turning to look at him straight in the eye, some inner struggle deciding if she could believe his answer or not.

“I will never hurt any of you, as long as you don’t hurt any of mine. That was the deal.” Dave said, as calmly and confidently as he could so Liz would somehow feel that this was the truth. Because as far as he was concerned, it was the truth. For all the right or wrong reasons, he just couldn’t afford that anyone hurt them. And he was expecting that they couldn’t afford to hurt him neither. Liz nodded, very slowly at first, but then with more confidence, as if she were deciding that she could trust him, even if just a little.

“You know how everyone feels they’re alone?” Liz said, turning to look at the window again. Dave frowned. Where was Mrs. Evans going? Liz seemed to sense this because, turning with a shy smile, she said, “You said you wanted to know why I kept Max’s secret and why I married him despite everything the commitment requires, so I’m trying to explain it to you.”

Dave smiled, and taking another sip from his hot chocolate, he nodded in understanding.

“Well,” Liz said, her gaze returning to the outside world, her mind going to a time and place invisible for him. “When I first found out I wasn’t dead and that Max had saved me because of what he is, I was mesmerized… but then I started doubting. I started questioning why Max had risked everything… And Max must have sensed that all my questions would inevitably lead to the wrong conclusions, because he came to me to explain things. Despite the fact that Michael had wanted to leave so badly, Max stayed. He truly believed that I would understand if he told me. If he let me see that it was still him…”

Liz paused for a second, smiling at some inner memory, her eyes bright with a new light that hadn’t been there when she had entered that room less than ten minutes before. In silence, Dave wondered what inner strength drove this young girl that had not run away when she had found out, beyond a doubt, that aliens did live among them.

“He made a connection, and I saw… I felt everything he was letting me see, and I knew I wasn’t alone. For the first time in my life, I knew what someone else was capable of feeling. How someone else truly viewed me.” Liz stopped, turning to look at him for a moment, trying to make her point come across. “It all really started with that connection… and Max became this incredible person, this exciting person that was making my life so much more. I wasn’t a small town girl anymore. My life was different because he was different,” Liz reflected, like it was the first time that she was giving it a thought, though in reality it was only the first time she was saying it out loud.

“So,” Dave said, looking at her as she returned her view to the window, “the ‘exciting’ never stopped?”

Liz shook her head “no” slightly and slowly. “It did. Eventually it wore off… and I was with Kyle, and then I wasn’t, and there was all this… stuff happening… And then the excitement was over and there was just Max,” Liz said, frowning a little, smiling a little, as if the thought were amusing. And for Dave, it was. “He wasn’t any different than what he had always been before he healed me. He sort of lost that mysterious aura after a while. I mean, he lost it once I realized it really was still him: My lab partner.” Liz let go a small, mischievous smile. “My lab partner that had let me see his soul,” she corrected, “who didn’t have a clue I knew he had loved me since the third grade.”

Dave had been sipping his hot chocolate until that point. He almost choked himself. “That’s a long time,” he managed to get out, trying not to stop Liz in her account of events.

“So,” Liz said, turning once more to look at him, “that’s when I really fell in love with Max. Once I got past the shock and the excitement. That was when I started to know him for who he was, not for what he was, or what he had risked, or what he could do.”

“It never bothered you then… that he was different? That he was being chased? That ultimately you would give up a lot to be with him? I mean… why is it worth that?” Dave calmly asked her. He knew from Michael and Kyle that Max and Liz hadn’t had it easy. He knew from school gossip that there had been a lot of ups and downs between those two. So, why had Liz stuck with Max? Why was she still sticking with him?

“‘If it isn’t complicated, he probably isn’t your soul-mate’,” Liz whispered with the slightest of smiles, clearly quoting someone else. Then her manner became serious. “Once the excitement wore off, other things became obvious too,” Liz said, looking at some point below the windows. “The scary part… That one day someone could come and take Max away. Could come and take them away.” Liz crossed her arms over her chest in a protective way. “He was just Max but… circumstances were far from normal. And it all was just so… unfair, for all of them. They were born into something that they just couldn’t escape…” She sighed, letting her frustration go.

“It sounds like a good reason to not fall in love with one of them,” Dave said, arching one eyebrow, sipping his hot chocolate again. Liz turned to look at him, her eyes lost in memories of not so long ago.

“I won’t lie to you,” Liz said, looking straight at him, “it’s not easy. It never has been. His alien side… his alien past… it’s not something he could or can get rid of.” She gave a little sigh, and turned her eyes to the window again. “But through all it implied, all the good and all the bad…and the scary and the exciting… Through all of it, all the kisses and all the hurt… at some point I just realized that you can’t take love in black and white, in right and wrong… not without all these shades in between. At one point I just had to ask myself if Max was what I really wanted, despite the implications.. If I could see a future with him. If I wasn’t losing myself on something that wasn’t really there.”

“Did it take you long to answer yourself?” Dave asked, intrigued. It wasn’t a fairy-tale kind of love, as some could imagine when they saw how Max and Liz gravitated toward each other. It was the kind of love that had been fought through. The kind that had a better chance to succeed, he guessed.

“I took my time,” she sincerely answered him. “I wanted to be sure that when I woke up someday in the future, I wouldn’t regret my decision. And in the end, I chose to be with him, wherever it leads me. I chose to fall in love with him all over again because without him, there’s no future I want. And I have never stopped since that moment, falling in love. That’s why it was, and still is all worth it, all of it. Because I love him... And because he loves me back.”

It sounded so simple and yet so complicated, Dave absently thought. How one’s dreams had to change, or wait, in order to fulfill that one and only wish: That you would be with this one person who would make it all worth while.

“Love,” Dave said softly, his mug resting in his hand on his lap, his eyes looking out the window just like Liz’s, “the biggest leap of faith. The purest form of trust. And he trusts you,” Dave stated, “that’s a powerful reason to want to be with anyone. And trust like that isn’t easy to earn, or easy to keep.”

Liz stopped staring out the window and, lifting her eyes to see him, she tilted her head a little, frowning. “Do you trust in anyone?” she boldly asked, taking Dave aback. He arched his eyebrows, almost offended.

“I mean,” Liz said, studying his face, “Can a man like you trust in anyone?”

Dave turned to look out the window, his own memories of countless times with Jake coming to his mind. Liz was partially right, a man like him couldn’t afford to trust in the wrong people, but no one could go on living his entire life without trusting someone at one point or another. If not for anything else, it just wasn’t practical.

“I trust in Jake,” he simply said, without anymore explanation. He had wanted Liz to ask one or two questions related to his motives because it amused him to divert people, drive them to the wrong conclusions, but now they were getting too personal for him to like. Still, he knew he couldn’t just leave it like that. “I don’t have the benefit of a connection, but I think he trusts in me back.”

“Is that why he’s the one in charge of the Lab? Why you sent Max, Michael and Isabel to him? Because you trust him?” Liz asked, a girl so used to asking questions it was second nature to her; Dave liked that. He liked that of anyone, because there are no answers if there are no questions. Dave smiled at her mischievously.

“I don’t know if this connection you have with Max allows you to know him as well I do Jake after 32 years of friendship, but have you ever felt what Max wants the most in the world?”

“What do you mean?” Liz said, hugging herself, as if she was suddenly cold.

“What Jake wants the most in the world is to be a common, simple human being,” Dave said, briefly closing his eyes, sighing slightly, almost exasperated. “He wonders half of the time what it would be like to have a desk job, a wife, two kids and a white house in the suburbs. From the first moment he was told he was a genius he hated the word. Hated what that made him: An outsider. He still hates what he is, even if now he’s pretty much resigned to the fact that what he comprehends hardly anyone else does.”

Jake did ask him from time to time how he could deal with the fact that the patterns he saw on everything were hidden to anyone else, because frankly, Jake was tired of having to explain to others things so clear to himself. Dave always shrugged. He just didn’t care if others could see or not what he was seeing. It was enough for him to know the pattern was there. To hell with everyone else.

“So you placed Jake with them because he pretty much feels what Max, Isabel and Michael feel,” Liz said, concluding Dave’s last statement, “That they are all outsiders on this world.”

“In part, but Jake is a genius on what he does best, and that’s knowing every detail of the human body. Though I gotta tell you Liz, your husband and Co. are giving him the worst of times.”

Oh, his best friend in the entire world hadn’t exactly been complaining about that, but Dave knew Jake’s incredible patience was approaching its limit. Jake had always been able to have the best of human relationships, and the fact that he couldn’t reach these kids was killing something inside of him.

Liz, however, gave him a small, knowing smile. It was Dave’s turned to frown.

“They’re not doing it on purpose, are they?” Dave asked her, not sure if he wanted to know he had placed Jake in an impossible situation.

“No!” Liz immediately said, “it’s just… it’s just that this whole thing… I mean, you should have expected it,” Liz said, looking at him almost in an accusatory way, her voice starting to raise a little. “You kidnapped us, brought us into this underground prison, practically forced us to accept your offer, and now you’re telling me you don’t understand why they’re ‘giving Jake a hard time’?”

It was a good thing Liz didn’t have powers, Dave thought, or another of his very expensive 2 by 2 feet windows would have been shattered just about now. Liz might look innocent and sweet, but that girl knew how to stand her ground every bit as well as Michael did.

On her part, Liz was also thankful her new powers had been taken away by her husband, or right now she would have given concrete proof of what being brought back from the dead by an alien could do to you.

“Wow, wow, wow,” Dave said, placing his mug on his desk, “All I’m saying is that Jake has great people skills, so I’m just surprised he hasn’t managed to get along with them. But though I am sorry you kids don’t feel safe in here, I don’t regret anything I have done to bring you to this ‘underground prison’. You were sitting ducks out there, and you know that Liz. You all do or you wouldn’t have accepted my offer in the first place. I didn’t force you to accept, I just gave you a real experience of what was waiting for you out there.”

Now, that had come out a lot harsher than he had wanted, but if that was going to be the only way these kids were going to “get it”, well, then he would just get use to yelling at them.

Liz turned to look at the floor, and above a whisper she said: “It’s just too good to be true that someone is selflessly helping us.”

“But I’m not selflessly helping you,” Dave corrected her, Liz turning to see him in a second, “I do expect them to go to the Lab and shed some light on how their powers work.”

“You are going to an awful lot of troubles just to know that…” Liz pointed out, as serious as Dave was now. Another point for you, Dave thought, you found another crack.

“What do you suggest, then? That I kidnap you and threat Max into cooperating or else?” Dave answered back, Liz’s eyes going round. “You know, I do want Jake to… be in one piece once you decide to leave, and that means making sure neither Max, Michael nor Isabel have a reason to want to hurt anyone here. So, as much trouble as it is, I had to make sure that what I offered was of complete interest to you. I care that much about what Jake might find out. Or that he’s as safe as I want him to be.”

Liz slightly narrowed her eyes, obviously trying to find the crack on that last statement. Well Liz, you might find the cracks, but you’ll never see underneath them, Dave thought, taking his mug again, the hot chocolate inside still steaming a little. And he was right, because in the years to come Liz would see the cracks, but it wouldn’t be until eight years later that she –and all of them- would get to see “underneath” them.

* * *

Max was anxious. He hadn’t turned the page of the book he had in front of him for more than ten minutes now, his eyes were lost in some point of the cell diagram that was shown there. Michael couldn’t blame him though. He didn’t even want to imagine how he was going to be on Friday morning when Maria was going to be talking to Dave. Why had Dave chosen her birthday of all days? Maria hadn’t said much about that, but Michael was pissed off at Dave for doing that to her. If it went wrong Maria would never remember her birthday as a good thing on all her future celebrations. That was, of course, if there were going to be any future celebrations.

Not that Michael cared all that much about birthdays, to begin with. His own birthday was an arbitrary day picked up by some crazy woman when he had been put under the care of social services. Same for Max and Isabel. And that was why they didn’t have the same birthday, as the three of them knew was the truth: They had all emerged from their pods the same day. Granted, it wasn’t exactly a birth, but it was the closest thing they could come up with.

But what had brought his mind to birthdays had been something that hadn’t had much to do with Maria’s birthday. It had been Jake. Jake and his murmur about some stupid zodiac thing having to do with Ray. Max, Michael and Isabel had stared at Jake not believing their ears. NOT again, had been the two words written all over their faces.

Back when they had been found, they hadn’t seen each other because Max and Isabel had already been placed in the system and placed in a home one day before Michael had entered the orphanage. But the three of them had met pretty much the same people in that short time. And that included Ms. Andrade, a Mexican-American woman who spoke very broken English, wore the most astonishing combinations in clothes, and wore every sparkly accessory she could manage. She was also an Astrology freak, claimed to see auras, and read Tea leaves, if Michael remembered correctly.

It had been she who had chosen their birthdays, apparently because of their personalities. It had been she who had given different birthdays to three children who had actually hatched the same day and whose personalities had nothing to do with Zodiac Signs but previous lives… bioengineering and that sort of thing. Usually foster children were given the chance to pick their own birthdays, but since they couldn’t speak, and she was so damn convincing, both families in which they had been placed had accepted the suggested dates. Still, the woman had made an impression on them, and not exactly the good kind.

All their lives the three of them had mocked all that Zodiac crap simply because it didn’t apply. How could the three of them be so different if they had been born at the same time? Of course, when they had heard the message from home, finally knowing about their previous lives and the reason why they were the way they were, they hadn’t really paid any attention at all to what it meant in “Zodiac Signs Land”. It was just some stupid superstition people still believe in.

So when Jake had said something about Ray saying some stupid thing because he was a Scorpio, they had stopped looking at their brand new biology books and stared at him. Jake had stared back.

“What? It’s not such a bad idea,” Jake had said, referring to what Ray had said earlier.

“You believe in Zodiac Signs?” Isabel had asked, going directly to the point, ignoring for one second what Ray had suggested for them to start on How to Escape 101.

“Sure thing,” Jake had answered, and pointing at each one of them in turn, he had said, “Pisces, Scorpio, Sagittarius.” He had been right. Well, right to their supposed Zodiac Signs according to their given birth dates. The three of them had just blinked. Had he guessed? Or had he read their birth certificates? That had to be it, Michael had reflected in an instant.

“Now, before we go into any details about your future sessions,” Jake had continued, without saying another word as to why he believed in Zodiac Signs, “your Biology books arrived yesterday night so we are going to put them to good use.”

So now they were reading the introductory chapter, while Jake had excused himself and had left them in the small room where they had been playing car games on Monday. It unnerved Michael to know that hidden cameras were measuring his physical responses, and Max being so damn obviously distracted wasn’t helping matters. They were supposed to be seeing some stupid cell diagram, which Michael thought was completely and totally boring. He had seen this stuff in High School, why look at it again?

Isabel was distracted as well, and had faint dark circles under her eyes, a clear give away that she hadn’t slept much. She was restless, constantly moving her hand to take away a strand of hair, or she was accommodating herself on the sofa or she was doing another million small movements. Something was eating her up from the inside, but he would ask her later. He was having trouble himself in this place. The couch where he was seated was so damn comfortable that if he didn’t watch himself, in less than thirty minutes he would be dozing off. He had barely slept at all, thinking and rethinking everything that had happened yesterday on Dave’s office. From the minute he had entered the room to the moment the glass had shattered into a million pieces.

That brought on a smile. Even if Dave hadn’t done so much as flinch when the glass had shattered, Michael had made his point, and on this stupid, stupid situation where they were, at least that little… act had made Michael feel like there were things still under his control. That after all, Dave didn’t have all that power over them.

Still, Michael didn’t fool himself. Dave still held the main cards if not all the cards. Had Dave been scared? Michael wondered for the millionth time that morning. Had Dave truly thought Michael could hurt him? Certainly, he could, Michael reflected, but had Dave anticipated that little, let’s say, display of power? You might have me under your thumb, but I can still shatter your precious window… can shatter everything, including you, if I feel like it. It was a childish thought, Michael knew, but it was also the truth.

They had pretty much settled on a mind game: “what I’m telling you, what I’m implying and what I’m just plain refusing to say”. It took him a lot of effort to maintain his patience, because sometimes he could sense Dave trying to see how much he could ask about something personal until Michael jut simply changed the subject. But it happened vice versa as well. Michael could start trying to dig a little bit up – what did you do if you weren’t in High School? Who did you want to piss off if not your teachers? – and with that damned smile of his, Dave would just go off with something stupid, relating it to the last thing he had wanted to say, and effectively changing the subject. They weren’t fooling themselves, they both knew what the other was doing, but by accepting this dance, they both could get away with their own secrets. Or had they? Had he?

But things had escalated when Dave had started to ask him about Maria. Then about Max, and Isabel, and then about Maria. And about Tess, and how they had escaped just the week before, and then about Maria again. What was his interest with the love of his life? Dave had wanted to know why he had finally decided that Maria at his side was the right choice. And Michael hadn’t been able to answer him. Not because he didn’t know, but because it truly frightened him, right down to the bottom of his soul, now knowing what Dave might do with such information.

And Dave had changed the subject once again, knowing there was no answer for him this time. It freaked Michael out that Dave could so easily read him, that Dave knew so well how to handle these kinds of conversations, knowing when to push and when to let go. It was like Max had said about being a leader with insight: How did one know what to do?

What kind of person was Dave? They had been watched for around two years, that much they knew, since it hadn’t been until Max had healed children in Phoenix that Dave had truly found them, but before that? What did Dave do? They also knew Dave was going away after Saturday… but where? What were his projects about, as Ray had told them when they had had dinner together? But most of all, what exactly was Dave trying to discover with these meetings? Through all his accounts of events with the Skins, Dave had remained silent, very focused on Michael’s words, clearly intrigued by it, but he hadn’t asked anything. It was the same with Laurie and the Gandarium. Sometimes Michael would just stop and Dave would look up from his puzzle, questioning with his eyes as to why he had stopped.

All alien events were monologues for Michael. But when he started to talk something relationship wise, the questions would begin. Endless and relentless they seemed, and Michael had to keep tabs on what he was supposed to say and what he wasn’t. Dave was intrigued about them and their relationships, that was clear, but why? Were they some sort of soap opera that Dave had been following for the past twenty-four months? The only good thing about that was, every now and then, Dave made references to his own life in order to make some relation or to settle the base of yet another question. It was for those glances into this man’s life that Michael had kept talking.

Carelessly, not really paying attention, Michael turned the page he was pretending to read, setting his eyes on some stupid diagram related to something called Action Potentials. Something to do with neurons, but that was all he knew as his thoughts returned to his own amusements, efficiently ignoring the book he had in front of him. Though he wasn’t exactly ignoring this place all that much.

At least they weren’t playing car games, thank God. When they had arrived early Jake had shown him the white screen and then had changed it so Michael could see what Max and Isabel had seen the day before: They were being watched. All around the room there were sensors watching him. He hadn’t said anything to Jake about what he thought, much less about how that absolute proof of the fact they were being measured made him feel an unexplainable anger and at the same time an incredible curiosity. He wasn’t a science geek, but it intrigued him to know how he was affecting things and to let others know what he could do. Because after all, since Michael had always embraced his alien side as the only way of salvation, his powers had made him, well, proud. They were the absolute and undeniable thing that confirmed he was not part of the human race.

It was a realization that had startled him the very second he had thought it, but it was also true. It was only ironic that he had been so bad at it in the beginning when he could barely summon his powers, let alone control them. He had envied Max –and Isabel- for the seemingly effortless way they managed the little tricks of manipulating molecules. Michael guessed the truth was that he himself had been afraid of his own alien side. He was so afraid of being discovered and taken away. And every time he had been using his powers a little fear would increase inside of him: What if he was being watched?

Well, the answer had been given when the white screen had come to life showing him the blues and whites and electric light blues around him, all three of them, while Jake’s own blues had looked dull and lifeless. Even Jake had whistled and turning to look at them, he had playfully said: “Well, aren’t you charged today.” He had turned the screen off, something on his mind. Jake could never conceal it when he was trying to make a decision, it was as if there was a battle going on in his head. It only lasted two seconds, but Michael had seen it. Once the battle was gone from his eyes, it had been then when Jake had started to talk about what he and Ray had talked earlier.

Now they were alone on this room waiting for him to come back. What did Jake have to do with all of this? How much did he actually know? And why, for crying out loud, did it always seem as if Jake himself was out of the loop? And Jake knew this, knew that other things, bigger things, were happening between Dave and them, and yet he had just stayed in the background, or… something… If Jake’s only purpose was to fulfill their part of the deal, to discover how their powers worked, what did it mean? Were Jake and Dave really as closed friends as they had been told? And if so, why risk his best friend into this without telling him the truth?

At his side, Max finally gave signs of life if only to lift his right hand to rub his tired eyes. Gees, by the look of it, none of them had actually slept much the night before. Michael noticed that Max’s left hand was still holding the book in front of him, holding it so hard that his knuckles were getting white. Max was so not there, his mind lost in some place where he could feel Liz’s emotions as well as if they were his. Michael turned worried eyes to Isabel, but there was not much help in there. Isabel’s eyes were lost in the book as well, but they weren’t moving. She was staring, just as Max had been doing, at the page she had in front of her. Obviously, her thoughts were somewhere else too. What was worrying Isabel so much? Oh, the list was pretty long on that department, but still… Isabel was the type of person who could easily conceal her emotions, and so far, she had settled her mind on acting as normal as one could. She was determined to deceit their captors. Well, apparently not right this moment.

Max returned to his previous posture, Isabel kept doing a million restless movements. Michael’s thoughts refused to return to yesterday. Damn, even a little music in this place could distract him a little. They weren’t talking just for the simple fact that they were being recorded. So, whatever was concerning them, it sure couldn’t be discussed here.

What was that place, the place beyond the door to his left? The white, glass looking door that connected this room to the real Lab? Michael himself rubbed his eyes. Part of him was also getting Maria’s feelings from the Gym. Sometimes he could feel her desperation and boredom at the long hours that laid before her till their meeting point. From time to time he would get to feel her laughing, probably at something Kyle had said, and those few moments felt so good to him. He would have to thank Kyle at some point for making her laugh, for making her forget for a second that the world sucked. Sometimes, too, he would let Maria feel him back so she would know he was okay, and the warm feeling of her thanks would fill him. God, Maria felt so good, he could understand why Max just simply didn’t “disconnect”. But that level of commitment… was he ready to let Maria feel him, through goods and wrongs, through happiness and sorrow?

No.

And Dave had asked him that, not in so many words, and not with such tactlessness, but sure, he had asked it. You stayed on Earth because there was no way back? Are you sure home is out there? What does home mean to you, anyway? Is “home where the heart is”? Well, maybe Dave had used a lot of words, after all. But it was as if Dave had been measuring him, measuring the way he loved Maria, if that was even possible. More likely, Dave wondered what Maria meant to him. But Dave knew, Michael was sure of it, that Maria meant home to him. He was just proving his point, almost as if pointing out that he could use Maria against him if he wanted to. And that had made Michael go cold with fury, finally turning away from Dave’s piercing hazel eyes, moving his own eyes towards the window behind the man who seemed to have all the answers.

“If you hurt her,” Michael had said, his eyes locked on the window, his voice cold and almost emotionless, “you’ll wish you had never found out about Max, about me.” The window had shattered then, Michael containing the tiny little pieces inside the frame. He wanted the glass shattered, true, but he also wanted it to remain, so when Dave finally turned around and looked at it, he would see how many tiny fragments Michael’s power could shatter him.

Dave had only nodded in understanding. He didn’t say a word for almost two minutes, both men locked in their own thoughts. Finally, Dave had spoken again. Calmly, calculated, almost soothing, he had told Michael that he knew Maria’s birthday was coming. “I have an idea for her gift. You might find it useful.” Ten minutes later, Michael had been walking down the corridors of this underground fortress to concreting Dave’s idea of Maria’s gift.

He should have blown out his puzzle, Michael thought as he was turning the page again, he smiled to himself at the sole idea of Dave’s face as the tiny pieces went flying away. He should have thought about that when he had been up there… As the next page came into view, his eyes caught on the bolded words Neurotransmitters and Receptors. Now, this was getting interesting. Quickly scanning the paragraph, he found himself lost with the terms of acetylcholine and noradrenaline. What were these things? He was turning back the page to see where this all began, and he had just found the title –Synaptic Transmission- when a loud sound had startled him so bad he had almost ripped the page out of the book.

A second later, the enigmatic white right door had been shattered. Shattered as Dave’s window had been shattered, but this time around Michael had nothing to do with it. The sound had come from the white screen in front of them, some presentation being played there, but the energy that had cracked the white door had come from Max. His best friend was staring at the white door just as perplexed as Isabel and Michael were staring at him. It was as if Max had been coming out of a dream or something, realizing for the first time how tight he had been. He had been so out of it that when the sound had startled all of them, his energy had gone out of control. For Pete’s sake, when had Max ever lost his control over his powers? And being drunk didn’t count. That answer was easy: Never.

“Are you all right?” Isabel asked him, concerned. Max was still staring at the thousands of lines that now were through the entire door. “Max?” Isabel pressed.

“Yeah… I just…” Max said, finally focusing on her, but his mind still obviously trying to figure out what had happened here.

“Lost it?” Michael elaborated. How odd to say that to Max. Max turned to look at him now, more alert than he had been in the past fifteen minutes, about to say something when Jake entered the room. Gosh, the look of guilt on their three faces couldn’t have been more obvious even if they had wanted it to be. Which was ridiculous, because Isabel and himself hadn’t had anything to do with the door being shattered. And besides, it was Jake who had startled them, hadn’t he? Who else could have made whatever was being played on the screen appear?

Pressing the remote he was holding with his right hand, Jake made the screen go white and soundless again; briefly closing his eyes, he heavily sighed.

“Get out,” he simply said, not with anger, not with resentment. Just a simple statement of what they should do right this moment. And though there wasn’t fury in his tone, there was an absolute undertone that was saying “I’m not asking you, I’m telling you what to do”. And yet, the three of them remained motionless.

“Come on, get out,” Jake said again, this time urging them, almost as if losing his patience. Isabel was about to say something when Jake cut her off. “I don’t care if you go to the corridor outside or if you go to China right now. I just don’t want any of you here.”

They still didn’t move. Now it was anger that was in Jake’s voice. “You are tense as stones, you didn’t sleep at all, your concentration is non existent, and something as ridiculous as a loud sound makes you go breaking things? God, I could kill Dave right now!” Michael frowned. So this anger wasn’t directed at them? Looking at each one of them in turn, Jake continued: “You won’t come back ‘til Dave has finally left this place and you kids can actually concentrate on what the hell you’re doing down here to begin with. I’m just through with trying to reach you when your minds are simply not around here to be reached. So I’ll see you on Monday.”

For the briefest of moments, the three of them turned to look at each other, and almost in unison rose and made it for the door at Jake’s side. It wouldn’t be until they were in the elevator that Michael would notice that he had carried with him the biology book. Actually, it wouldn’t be until that moment too that he would realize how early it was, not even ten o’clock, and the strangeness of the whole thing. What had happened with Jake?

Turning to look at his two best friends in the world, Michael asked them with unspoken words what all this had been about. Isabel shrugged, Max just looked plain guilty. Somewhere inside his very soul he could feel Maria getting worried about his own mixed feelings that had somehow reached her.

“Gym?” Michael finally said, breaking the silence between them. Isabel and Max nodded in approval. As the elevator doors slid open, Michael vaguely thought about the fact that now he had tomorrow and Friday morning free to do as he pleased. Well, whatever the hell had happened down there with Jake, Michael had great plans for this suddenly free time.

TBC…

Author’s Note: The paragraph that included the terms Neurotransmitters, receptors, acetylcholine, noradrenaline and synaptic transmission were taken from the book “Life: The science of biology” by Purves, Orians & Heller, third edition, Edited by Sinauer and Freeman. I’ll be getting information in the future from this book, so, since this is the first time, I thought about saying so here, and making just the references later on

Post by **Island Breeze** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 2:47 am

Great parts! I had some catching up to do, but I'm all caught up again now. :D

I had to smile at the remarks about Max's stubborness.

The next moment, however, just as she turned to look at Max entering the Cafeteria, their eyes meeting, she could also feel Max’s mixed feelings getting stronger, especially his stubbornness. Whatever had happened at the Lab, Max was setting in stone whatever was passing through his mind right now.

And Michael keeping the conversation going in circles for 4 hours.

:

It impressed Liz that Michael had been able to keep a four-hour long conversation by going around in circles. After all, everyone knew Michael wasn’t the talkative type. He told them about key points of his conversation, of course, but by the sound of it, they had both talked a lot without really saying much. Liz sighed to herself. How was it going to be with her? How should she approach this… challenge?

Then Isabel actually made me wonder about Dave...

So… why wasn’t she able to dreamwalk Dave? Okay, she didn’t have a picture of him, but he wasn’t all that far away to begin with… Maybe he was out of reach because he left the place during the night… Or maybe… maybe Dave was also an alien? The thought came so suddenly that made Isabel’s sleepiness go away in a second. Could that be it? She couldn’t dreamwalk Dave because he wasn’t human? Granted, the only “alien” she had ever dreamwalk was her brother, and Max wasn’t exactly 100% alien either… Isabel went cold. What would be the implications if Dave weren’t human?

No… he had to be human, right? But as Isabel went through her mind about what they knew about Dave, there wasn’t anything definitive about Dave’s species status… It could explain why he wasn’t

But I really loved the parts where he is trying to understand why Liz loves Max and stays with him in spite of everything. That is Dreamer magic!

“Is there something you don’t know?” She briefly closed her eyes, and embrace herself for God knew what.

“Plenty,” Dave said. “Like what that key opens, for instance… Or the fact that it is a key to begin with… Or why you didn’t tell anyone about Max… Or why you married him despite everything that commitment requires. I don’t know a million things, Liz. And I want to know. I want to know about the woman who married someone that, according to modern science, shouldn’t be here. I want to know about you, the girl who made a boy from another planet fall in love with her so badly he risked everything he had to risk.”

“‘If it isn’t complicated, he probably isn’t your soul-mate’,” Liz whispered with the slightest of smiles, clearly quoting someone else. Then her manner became serious. “Once the excitement wore off, other things became obvious too,” Liz said, looking at some point below the windows. “The scary part… That one day someone could come and take Max away. Could come and take them away.” Liz crossed her arms over her chest in a protective way. “He was just Max but… circumstances were far from normal. And it all was just so… unfair, for all of them. They were born into something that they just couldn’t escape…” She sighed, letting her frustration go.

“It sounds like a good reason to not fall in love with one of them,” Dave said, arching one eyebrow, sipping his hot chocolate again. Liz turned to look at him, her eyes lost in memories of not so long ago.

“I won’t lie to you,” Liz said, looking straight at him, “it’s not easy. It never has been. His alien side… his alien past… it’s not something he could or can get rid of.” She gave a little sigh, and turned her eyes to the window again. “But through all it implied, all the good and all the bad…and the scary and the exciting… Through all of it, all the kisses and all the hurt… at some point I just realized that you can’t take love in black and white, in right and wrong… not without all these shades in between. At one point I just had to ask myself if Max was what I really wanted, despite the implications.. If I could see a future with him. If I wasn’t losing myself on something that wasn’t really there.”

And I loved Liz turning the question around on Dave!

Liz stopped staring out the window and, lifting her eyes to see him, she tilted her head a little, frowning. “Do you trust in anyone?” she boldly asked, taking Dave aback. He arched his eyebrows, almost offended.

“I mean,” Liz said, studying his face, “Can a man like you trust in anyone?”

Dave turned to look out the window, his own memories of countless times with Jake coming to his mind. Liz was partially right, a man like him couldn’t afford to trust in the wrong people, but no one could go on living his entire life without trusting someone at one point or another. If not for anything else, it just wasn’t practical.

I also had to smile when Liz was thinking that it was a good thing her powers were clipped...

It was a good thing Liz didn’t have powers, Dave thought, or another of his very expensive 2 by 2 feet windows would have been shattered just about now. Liz might look innocent and sweet, but that girl knew how to stand her ground every bit as well as Michael did.

On her part, Liz was also thankful her new powers had been taken away by her husband, or right now she would have given concrete proof of what being brought back from the dead by an alien could do to you.

And finally, we get that mysterious tease again about it being not until eight years later before they would see some things thoroughly. I'm wondering what that means exactly. Eight years later... that they'll be there that long? That something will happen eight years in the future? :?:

Liz slightly narrowed her eyes, obviously trying to find the crack on that last statement. Well Liz, you might find the cracks, but you’ll never see underneath them, Dave thought, taking his mug again, the hot chocolate inside still steaming a little. And he was right, because in the years to come Liz would see the cracks, but it wouldn’t be until eight years later that she –and all of them- would get to see “underneath” them.

Hoo boy! So much mystery! Great parts!