Fan Fic and More

Posted: **Sun Jun 19, 2005 5:19 pm**

All I can say is, Whoa, Jesse! That must really hurt! <img src=http://www.majiklmoon.com/ezboardsmilies/lol.gif ALT=":lol"> Isabel sure took care of him! <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/roll.gif ALT=":rollin"> And I got a big laugh out of this whole part, too: <blockquote>Quote:<hr>“I don’t know what kind of girl you think I am,” she smiles. “Do you think I would walk around school wearing a dress and no panties?” Alex’s eyebrows flew up, “But,,,” he pulls the lacy white garment from his pocket, “What about,,,” “Those?” Isabel loved the expression on his face. “I told you they were mine sweetie, I never said they were the ones I was wearing.” “You mean,,, all day,,,” Alex face turned to an evil grin, realizing that she had got the best of him. “Oh no you don’t,,,” he threatens, advancing on her. “Give them to me!” “What?” It was Isabel’s turn to be surprised. “The ones you’re wearing,” Alex demanded with a leer on his face. “Give them to me right now or I’ll go down there and get them myself.” Isabel realized he was serious. “No way!” she exclaimed with a look of shock on her face.<hr></blockquote> <img src=http://www.majiklmoon.com/ezboardsmilies/lol.gif ALT=":lol"> And Isabel took care of Pam pretty good, too, I might add, but nothing compared to Jesse... ouch! <img src=http://www.majiklmoon.com/ezboardsmilies/bash.gif ALT=":bash"> <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/wink.gif ALT=";)"> <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/roll.gif ALT=":rollin"> Now hurry back and save Alex from Tess! <div style="text-align:center"><img src="http://users.aol.com/isndbreeze/skysymb ...   Gerry - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hopeless Candy-Coated, Stargazing, Dreamer! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</div>

Posted: **Tue Jun 21, 2005 12:57 pm**

i'm going to start reading this story because pooh says it's great! and i believe her! LOL but it disappeared from boardello and i'm so happy to see you posting here!! ok, off to read! ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ some days it’s not worth gnawing through the straps <a href="http://www.mediablvd.com/forums/viewfor ... <img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v302/ ... </a> <img src="http://<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v302/ ... /jbavi.png[/image<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v302/ ... <img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v302/ ... <img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v140/ ...

Posted: **Mon Aug 01, 2005 7:58 pm**

Gazer Gets the Girl,
Chapter 7 - The Showdown

by Stargazer_md

Disclaimer: The characters don’t belong to me. If they did, the show would still be on.
Some text is borrowed from the show, I didn’t treat it any worse than the original writers.
Summary: Izzy fights for her man.
Setting: End of S-2.
Category: Alex/Isabel with CC
Rating: PG-13

Where were we? Alex is blasted across the room and slams into a table, breaking it. He fell to the floor motionless, a slight trickle of blood running from his temple.

**********
Isabel walked into the Crashdown, and looked around anxiously. She stuck her head into the kitchen, “Michael?, where’s Alex?”

Michael looked up from the grill, “He left with Kyle about an hour ago. Kyle had something he wanted to show him.”

“Is Liz out back?” Isabel continued.

“Yea, she just got here,” Michael mumbled, returning to the task at hand.

Isabel blew through the door and stuck her head into the changing room. Liz was talking to Maria, and was starting to change into a Crashdown uniform.

“Alex is with Tess’!” Isabel exclaimed, but before anyone could react the tall teen was struck with a flash of pain and a feeling of dread that took her breath away. She bent at the waist, her hands on her knees as panic overwhelmed her. Liz and Maria both ran across the room and helped her upright as she caught her breath. “I've got to get there,” Isabel exclaimed, a look of panic in her eyes. “Now!.”

Liz, re-buttoned her blouse as she looked at Maria questioningly.

“Go!” Maria bellowed. “Space Boy and I got the place. Get going.”

Isabel and Liz slammed back into the restaurant, catching Max’s attention. “Max, I need you,” Isabel said on the way by.

“What’s going on?” he asked, bewildered.

“Now Max,” Isabel commanded, already at the door.

Max remembered the night Alex was hurt, realizing she would leave him behind if he didn’t hurry. He quickly caught up with them. “Isabel, just tell me what’s happening.”

As they rounded the corner towards where the jeep was parked, Isabel explained. “Something’s wrong, with Alex. I think he’s hurt.” Isabel ran to the jeep and leapt into the driver's seat. With a wave of her hand the engine roared to life. Liz jumped into the back as Max swung into the passenger seat, then hung on for life as Isabel roared through the streets of Roswell.

“How do you know he’s hurt,,,” Max shouted over the roar of the engine. “Iz, the other night, you didn’t call him, did you?”

“No, I didn’t call him,” Isabel replied. “He knew I needed him and he came.”

Max was stunned, “How was that possible?”

“I don’t know for sure, but I think it’s because of the amount of time we spend connected,” Isabel shouted as she dropped two gears, screeched around the corner onto East College Boulevard, and then mashed the accelerator to the floor. “Alex and I have been friends for years, even when we weren’t dating. We’ve been dream walking and connecting for over a year. We’ve tried a lot of different things, trying to push the boundaries. Sometimes when I enter the dream plane, I don’t have to look for him, he’s already waiting for me. We can connect without touching,,,”

“What,” Max demanded, thinking about the extremes he and Liz have to go through to connect. “How?”

“At first we held our hands an inch apart,” Isabel explained, “But lately we can connect if we are sharing a couch or table. Sometimes we can do it if we are in the same room, although it’s hazy.”

“So, you can tell when something happens to the other?” Max asked incredulously.

“I hope not,” Isabel said with a tremor in her voice. “Whatever that flash was, it got cut off. I’m afraid something happened to him.”

Max looked at his sister, and then turned to look at Liz, and saw the fear in both of their eyes. “Don’t worry,” he said with a bravado that he hoped he was going to be able to back up with action. “We’re going to take care of him.”

Isabel slowed as she approached the Valenti’s house, but she sped up as she saw Tess’ SUV and Alex’s Volvo pull out onto the street. She followed them as they headed out of town, turning North onto Rt. 285 and then again as they turned East onto Rt. 70. “What are we going to do?” Liz wanted to know.

“Nothing while they’re moving,” Isabel advised. “I don’t want any chance that Alex would be hurt.”

About fifteen minutes later they saw Tess turn into the scenic rest stop just before the Pecos River crossing. As they passed a sign indicating that the rest stop was closed from dusk to dawn, they saw Tess stop at the gate and moments later it opened admitting the SUV and Volvo. Isabel waited for them to crest the hill and then used her powers to open the gate.

“What are they doing out here in the middle of nowhere?” asked Max.

“I don’t know, but I’m still afraid to do anything that might cause a crash,” Isabel stated, a cold fury in her voice as she stopped at the base of the hill and watched as Tess parked her SUV in a parking slot.

Tess got out of her SUV and directed the driver of the Volvo to park with the front of the car pointed towards the exit ramp aiming back at the highway. Tess then walked past the trunk, opening it with a wave of her hand. She then opened the driver's side door and Kyle stepped out.

“Kyle,” Tess commanded, as she opened the driver's door, “I need my duffle out of the trunk. Bring it up here and put it in the front seat.”

“Now! They’re away from the driver's seats, lets go.” prompted Max.

Isabel started to let the clutch out. As she did, she saw Kyle pull something large from the trunk. “Alex! Oh my God, it’s Alex!.” She mashed the accelerator to the floor, screaming up the hill, and then screeched to a stop just behind the Volvo.

Isabel leapt from the car, running to Alex. “Get away from him.”

“Well, I should of known you’d show up,” Tess spat. “Anything to wreck one of my plans, but this time you’re too late.”

“What did you do to Alex?,” Isabel demanded as she watched Max place his hands on her boyfriend.

“Nothing worth mentioning,” Tess replied dismissively. “He had a job to do, he failed. I was going to take out the trash, but now, I’m going to be able to take care of everyone who ever hurt me.”

Isabel was stunned by the venom in Tess’ voice. She moved to her side, trying to draw Tess’ attention away from Max’s efforts to revive Alex. “Why are you doing this? I befriended you the first time I met you.”

“The first time we met”” Tess screeched. “The first time we met you told Zan not to trust me. Every chance you got, you tried to turn my husband against me.”

“On Antar?” Isabel asked in disbelief. “That wasn’t me! Look at me, I’m human, I’m Isabel, not Vilandra. I don’t know who that woman was and I don’t ever want to find out.”

“History lesson Vilandra,” Tess shouted as she began to pace in frustration. “You can’t abandon your past quite so easily. All I wanted was a nice simple palace revolt. My family has been aligned with Kivar’s for generations. Your family didn’t care about ruling, Zan made decisions with the flip of a coin and you were the party princess. Why is it the only time you have a backbone is when I’m involved?.”

“You started the revolt?” Isabel asked in amazement.

“History is written by the victors, Vilandra,” Tess said with a smile. “You will always be blamed for that, rightly so. I arranged for a little change of leadership, that’s all. Your family picked that one time to call on your allies. You started the war, you’re the one’s that got us all killed.”

“That was a lifetime ago, isn’t it time to move on?” Isabel stalled, looking at her still motionless boyfriend.

“Move on? How? I would have been happy for the time being if I could just have my husband back. All that brown haired bitch had to do was to do what I told her. She broke up with Zan, but she never let him go.” Tess raised her arm to fire, unsure of whether to attack Isabel or Liz. The hesitation gave Isabel time to raise her arm and summon energy of her own. They fired, their beams meeting between them.

Max was bent over Alex, pouring energy into his injured friend. He was determined that no one else be hurt because of what he considered to be his alien connection. Alex started to stir, but Max continued to pour his life force into him, determined to make sure that Alex was well.

Alex struggled to sit up, at which point Max fell into Liz’s arms exhausted. Alex looked around just in time to see Tess fire a beam of energy at Isabel, who barely avoided getting hit by firing back at the last possible moment. “Isabel!, Isabel!,,,” Alex shouted as he struggled to his feet.

“Alex!,,,” Liz shouted, “Stay back, you can’t survive in their kind of fight.” She knew it was hopeless, nothing would keep her friend away from Isabel if she was in danger.

The two beams clashing against each other looked like fireworks, throwing off showers of splinters that burned anything they touched. Alex waded into this spray until an especially large fragment of sparks drove him to his knees.

“Alex, stay back,” Isabel pleaded. “I can’t bear to lose you again.”

Alex stood and called forth every ounce of will power in his body. He walked the rest of the way to her and took her hand. The beams stopped.

Alex glared at Tess, defiantly raising their joined hands, he kissed Isabel’s. “However this turns out, we face it together.”

“Isn’t that sweet,” Tess taunted. “Pretty poor choice though Vilandra. Zan gave his energy to your human, now he’s useless. It might of been an even match if it was the both of you, now it’s just you and me.”

Isabel stole a quick glance at her brother, and Tess picked this moment to start firing again.

“No!,,,” Alex shouted, swinging in front of Isabel, protecting her with his body until she could meet the threat.

Isabel drew power from Alex and used it against Tess, but even their combined energy could not overpower their opponent. From the day she had left her pod, Tess had been trained by Nasedo to use her powers, and her strength was formidable.

“I was your Queen,,,” Tess taunted.

Isabel replied confidently, “You were never my Queen! Any slut can seduce a King, I was born Royal.” With that proclamation, the “V” constellation on her shoulder began to glow. Isabel and Alex felt an infusion of energy, an energy as powerful and pure as their love for each other. Isabel’s beam became increasingly bright and more powerful. It grew in size and brightness until it was blindingly white. Tess’ beam was forced steadily back.

“Tess, stop this now!,” Isabel pleaded. “There’s no need for you to lose your life.”

“Life?,” Tess angrily replied, resigned to her fate. “My life was on Antar.” Tess knew she couldn’t defeat Vilandra, not with the power of the Royal Seal behind her. "You can’t kill me, because I’ve never been alive.” She turned for one last look at her husband, who was still recovering from healing Alex. Liz was running her fingers through his hair, tenderly taking care of him.

Isabel watched with horror as Tess moved her arm and changed the aim of her beam. Isabel’s energy slammed through Tess as if she wasn't there. With was a flash of light, Tess’ essence was consumed, leaving nothing, but it was too late.

Isabel turned to see that the jeep had been destroyed. It had been blown back onto it’s side and was burning furiously. Kyle was staggering, fighting to stay upright. He leaned against the SUV, holding his arm. Isabel’s blood ran cold as she saw Max struggling to sit upright, Liz collapsed across his legs. She tried to run to them, but almost fell. Her legs were like rubber, her entire body exhausted.

Max was trying to get out from under Liz as gently as he could. The blouse over her shoulder was torn and bloody. Kyle and Isabel arrived to help at the same time. Kyle had removed his shirt and belt and was using them to bandage his arm.

“What happened?” Isabel asked. She looked back towards Alex.

Alex was on the ground, hands on his knees, but when he saw Isabel look at him, he waved at her. “Don’t worry about me, I think I’m getting used to it,” he quipped.

Kyle moaned, “Tess missed her by inches, but she hit the jeep. I think we both got hit by debris when it blew.”

Max had freed himself and was now kneeling by Liz’s side, placing his hand over her injury. “I've got to connect, I’ve got to heal her.”

“Make it quick,” Kyle pointed out. “We’ve got to get out of here before someone comes to investigate the fire.”

“Be careful Max, you’re pretty wiped out,” Isabel said with concern. “Just make her well enough to move, you can do the rest later.” Turning, Isabel shouted, “Alex, we need help over here,,,” Isabel’s voice died as she found him face down on the pavement. She ran to him almost crying, “No, No, No,,,” Isabel knelt beside Alex, gently rolling him onto his back. “Can you get up?” she asked softly. “We've got to get out of here, before we all end up in the white room.”

Alex tried to sit upright, and winced at the effort. “Tell you what, if you help me get up, I’ll promise you that I can fall down again all by myself.”

“Alex, this is no time for your jokes,” Isabel snapped as she helped him up, her voice cracking nervously.

“Who’s joking?” Alex moaned as he struggled to stay upright. “I can seriously fall down.”

Isabel guided Alex to the SUV, watching as Kyle got Liz and Max settled into the back seat. He closed the back door as they approached and opened the front passenger door.

“No,” Isabel commanded. “Back seat of the Volvo, Kyle. I want him somewhere I can take care of him.”

“Isabel, there are two cars, and we’re the only two left standing,” Kyle explained quickly. “There’s more room here. He can be next to you, but you have to drive.”

“Where to?,” she asked in frustration. “What do we do now?”

“My house,” Kyle commanded. “It’s the only place we can go that we won’t have a parent problem.”

“Michael’s?” Isabel questioned.

“Too small,” Kyle replied while shaking his head. “Too public.”

“Okay, your house,” Isabel conceded. “I’ll call Michael and Maria and tell them to meet us there.”

“I’ll call my dad and tell him to start making excuses. Thank God it’s Friday night,” Kyle said as he headed for the Volvo.

Isabel started the engine and headed down the ramp. She looked at Alex, “How you doing sweetie?”

“Everything hurts,” Alex groaned.

“I’ve got you sweetie, and I’m never going to let you go.” She turned west onto 70, headed back towards Roswell. “How about you guys in the back?”

“Okay for now, I guess,” Liz replied. “But I don’t think either one of us is going to be able to get out of here without help.”

Isabel pulled out her cell and dialed. ~~“Maria, I need to talk to Michael,”~~ the urgency in her voice silencing any questions. ~~“Michael, we just went through a war, everyone’s hurt,,, No, we’re going to Valenti’s, we need you guys there,,,”~~

“Isabel,” Liz demanded, “I need to talk to Maria, give me the phone.”

Respecting the same tone in Liz’s voice, she handed back the phone.

~~“Michael, I need to talk to Maria,,,”~~ Liz demanded. ~~“Just shut up and put her on,,, Maria, I need you to go to the soap factory,,,”~~

~~“Dad,”~~ Kyle exclaimed during his own call. ~~“We need you at the house,,, We just went through Mars Attacks II, we got hurt people,,, No, I’m taking them to our house, I don’t know where else we could hide,,, Yea, you better start calling parents and start making excuses, I don’t think anyone’s going to be in shape to go home tonight,,, No, nothing like that, Tess turned on us, Isabel had to stop her,,, no Dad, she had to kill her. Tess is gone,,, No, there’s no body, but Max’s jeep blew up, it’s at the Pecos overview on 70,,, Ok Dad, we’ll be there in about ten minutes.”~~

~~“Hanson?”~~ Jim said in surprise. ~~“You’re there late tonight,,, I need to report a stolen jeep,,,”~~

~~“Jim, so nice of you to call,”~~ Amy answered in full flirt mode.

~~“Amy, I wanted to tell you that I just got off the phone with Kyle,”~~ Jim groveled. ~~”Seems that the kids are coming over to my house. This being the last weekend of the school year they think that’s a good excuse for a party. I just wanted to tell you that Maria might not make it home tonight but that I’ll be there to make sure things stay under control.”~~

~~“So they get to party, and you get to be the lonely chaperone,”~~ Amy said sweetly. ~~”It’s so sweet you would look out for them.”~~

~~“Amy, I love these kids, all of them,”~~ Jim said, his words meaning more than he could ever admit. ~~”I would give my life for any one of them.”~~

~~“Well, I’ll let you go then,”~~ Amy said, disappointment in her voice. ~~”Take care Jim.”~~

Amy sat back thinking, first about needing another car, but a couple of other things as well. Making a decision, she leaned forward and talked to the driver of the taxi.

Valenti walked into his living room and looked around. It looked like a trauma center during a full moon. He looked for Kyle, “What happened?”

“Tess turned psycho,” Kyle tried to explain, still not understanding what had happened. “I don’t know what set her off. We ended up out on Rt. 70, and she just started blasting everyone. Alex and Liz are hurt, hurt bad. Max started working on Liz, but he’s out of gas.” Isabel looked up at Jim, Alex’s head in her lap. “Isabel is taking care of Alex, but she’s barely able to stand.”

“What about this?” Jim asked, pointing towards Kyle’s arm.

“I think I got hit when Tess blew up the jeep,” Kyle said dismissively. “It bled a lot but it doesn’t seem to be too deep.”

“First thing,” Jim commanded, “Go soak that with water so we can get the shirt off and we can put a proper bandage on it.” Turning towards Isabel, “Why would she blow up the jeep?”

“She didn’t,” Isabel answered. “She was aiming at Liz and missed.” Looking at Liz and Max on a couch barely able to sit up, she added, “Well, she missed with her beam. Liz and Kyle were next to the jeep and got hit when it blew.”

“What do we do now?” Jim asked as he ran his hand through his hair. “What can you do?”

“I can’t heal a paper cut,” Isabel admitted honestly. “I’m just trying to comfort Alex. Michael’s on the way, I know he can heal cuts and such, but I don’t know what to do about Alex, he’s been through so much, and Max is the only one who can help him.” She started to break down, “Maybe if I didn’t,,, I don’t know, but maybe if I didn’t do something,,, Tess wouldn’t have,,,”

“Hey, don’t even think like that,” Jim said compassionately, remembering how upset she was after the Whitaker affair. “You did what you had to do to protect yourself and your friends. You can’t think that she would help you with Alex when she’s responsible for what happened to him in the first place.”

Isabel nodded and returned her attention to Alex, stroking his hair and softly telling him how badly she needed him.

“What the hell is going on here?” Amy exclaimed as she entered the house. She angrily approached Jim, “I came over here because I thought you might like some adult company, and,,, and,,, what is this?”

“Amy, I can explain,” Jim said in a panic, “Just not right now.”

Kyle came out of the kitchen fumbling to open the household first aid kit with only one hand. He sat at the table, his wound exposed.

Amy reached for her cell, “Jim, he needs an ambulance.”

Jim gently took her phone, “No Amy, no ambulance, we can’t call anyone for help. We have to take care of this ourselves.” He gently led her to the table, “Amy, Kyle is hurt, can you help me take care of my son? I have to see if there’s anything I can do to help Alex, Liz and Max.”

Amy’s motherly instincts kicked in as she sat next to Kyle, looking into his pale face. Despite her best instincts she reached for the kit.

Things were just starting to get under control when the door opened and Isabel looked up to see Michael and Maria enter with, Tess? She took quick aim and fired a weakened burst of energy at the woman who hurt her Alex. She may have been exhausted, but she would defend him with her life.

Maria saw Isabel take aim and knocked Ava to the side, the blast missing them by inches and singing the wall behind her. “No, no! This is Ava! Not Tess, she’s a friend.”

Amy saw Isabel take her shot and was stunned speechless.

Jim took charge. “Michael, see what you can do with Kyle. Ava? Can you heal?”

“Yea, Zan didn’t like ta touch peoples,” Ava explained. “So's I's had a lotta practice and was able to develop it. I might not be as good as Max, but I's been doing okay so far.”

“Good,” Jim nodded, relieved that things were starting to turn to the better. “See what you can do with Alex.”

Michael, seeing Kyle’s open wound, quickly approached the table, Maria in tow.

“Welcome to my world Mom,” Maria sighed, adding in an undertone, “And another victim for the alien abyss.”

Kyle looked at Michael, “What do you think?”

“This is a battle injury,” Michael replied nervously. “I can see it, I can fix it.”

“Space Boy to the rescue. Mom, you've got to promise you won’t freak out,” Maria added.

“Freaked?” Amy choked out, “I’m way past freaked out,” she said pointing to the singed wall. “You have some serious explaining to do.”

Michael took the bandage out of Amy’s hand. “Mrs. DeLuca, I need you to hold Kyle’s arm. No matter what you see, I need you to promise Maria and Kyle that you won’t let him move.”

“Promise them?” Amy asked in confusion. “Why not you, you’re the one asking me?”

“Because in about ten seconds you’re not going to like me anymore,” he said, squeezing her hand as if to say goodbye. Michael put his hands over Kyle’s injured arm. He closed his eyes and concentrated. Amy’s eyes opened wide as Michaels hands began to glow. The laceration on Kyle’s arm began to close from the ends. Michael took a deep breath and continued to concentrate. Moments later Kyle’s arm looked as if it had never been injured. Michael released his arm, and stepped back, gasping for breath.

Maria took him by the shoulders and eased him into a chair. “There, there, my big strong Space Boy.” She kissed him repeatedly. “You just sit there and catch your breath.”

Amy looked at Maria with fear, “What’s wrong with him?”

“It’s a balance Mom,” Maria explained, never turning away from Michael. “Kyle needs to be healed, so Michael gives of himself. It takes a lot out of him, but he’ll be okay in a couple of hours.”

Meanwhile, Ava knelt down next to Isabel, looking at Alex. “Wha' happened?”

“I really don’t know, but Max already healed him once,” Isabel answered, her voice trembling. “I don’t know if this is from the first injury, or if Tess hurt him again.”

“Has you made connections with him before?” Ava asked suspiciously.

“Yes, we’ve been connecting and sharing dreams for almost two years” Isabel answered protectively. “We both know when the other needs us, even though we’re miles apart.”

“Without touchin'? I's didn’t even know we could do that. Make a connection with him now.” Ava commanded.

“Me? You’re the healer,” Isabel gasped.

“He's your mate. If your link’s that strong, you'se already bonded,” Ava replied in wonder. “I don’t want to interfere with that, I think I can work through your connection.”

Isabel was shocked to learn that she and Alex were joined, happy, but stunned. She put those feelings aside, and placed her hands on him. Isabel closed her eyes as she felt Ava’s hands cover her own. After months of frustration at being unable to find Alex with her mind, she was initially afraid when she found herself surrounded by darkness. ‘Not again,’ she thought, but she began to realize that this was not the swirling grey mist that had blocked her in the past. This was simple darkness.

Isabel saw a glow, the last remnants of the burning jeep, and realized that she was back at the rest stop. She ran towards the firelight and looked around. Alex was still where he fell, and she rushed towards him. He was lying on the cold pavement, his clothing torn and bloodied. His face was a mass of cuts and burses. “Alex, Sweetie, I’m here,,,”

“Izzy?” He reached up with an unsteady hand.

Isabel took his hand in hers, it felt cold. “Sweetie, I got you now, and I’m never going to let you go.” She sat down and settled Alex’s head onto her lap, mirroring their position in the living room.

“Izzy, it’s Tess. I need to protect you from her, she’s trying to get control of the granolith. She and Nicholas are trying to return to Antar,,,”

Isabel was stunned again, twice in less than a minute, but she remained focused on what was important.

“Shhh,” Isabel said while stroking his hair, gently calming him. “Tess is gone. She isn’t going to hurt you any more. You did your job, you protected me, all of us. Now it’s my turn to take care of you.”

“What happened?” Alex asked in confusion.

“She messed with an angry alien princess,” Isabel said possessively. “That’s what happened.”

“Izzy,” Alex replied unbelievingly. “I’ve never seen you angry, what caused it?”

“She hurt you,” Isabel answered as if it was the most logical answer in the world. “Now be still so I can take care of you.”

A beam of moonlight sliced through the darkness searching for the young teens. It found the couple and settled on them. Isabel closed her eyes in deep thought for a moment, and the parking lot was transformed into their clearing at Frazier Woods. The moonbeam brightened, and instead of a cool night the beam warmed them and gave them a feeling of peace and contentment.

“This is beautiful,” Alex said with wonder in his voice. “Are you doing this?”

“I’m here with you,” Isabel answered softly, “But I have help. We’re all here for you sweetie. You just lie back and get better.”

Isabel watched with amazement as Alex healed before her eyes. His wounds grew smaller and then closed. His bruises faded, some quicker than others. She waved her hand, repairing his clothing, but she stopped before reaching his collar. She reached down and smoothed that by hand.

Alex sighed in contentment and snuggled deeper into Isabel’s lap. Isabel continued to gently stroke his hair with one hand but her other hand held his tightly, the joined hands resting over his heart. “I've got you now Alex, and I’m never going to let you go.”

“Ok, Kyle” Jim commanded. “Everyone’s being taken care of. You’re going to tell me what happened, starting with Tess.”

“Dad, I don’t know everything that happened,” Kyle stammered. “I can’t even tell you what I’ve been doing.”

“I’ll make this real simple,” Jim exclaimed. “Tess, gone.”

“Tess was blasting everyone,” Kyle stated as he leaned back against the counter, his thoughts turning inward and back to earlier that night. “She busted Alex up pretty bad. She and Isabel were going head to head, Tess kept shouting about things back on Antar. Then she fired on Liz. She missed by inches and hit the jeep. Liz and I got caught in the explosion. Isabel took her out, Dad. It was a clean shoot, Dad. Isabel saved our lives.”

“And Tess?” Jim said, his voice softening with disbelief at the events that were being related to him.

“Gone,” Kyle replied, his eyes wide. “It looked like a puff of light, maybe she turned to dust, I don’t know. Nothing’s left.”

“And Alex?” Jim continued. “How’d he get mixed up in the middle of this mess?”

“Dad, I don’t know what happened,” Kyle answered honestly. “I remember picking him at the Crashdown, and the next thing I know we’re at the rest stop. Alex was already down,,, Dad, I think it happened here. Go look at my room, it’s smashed up and there’s blood everywhere.”

“Okay,” Jim concluded as he ran his hand through his hair. “We’re not going to get to the bottom of this tonight, but we’re going to have to discuss it in the morning.”

“Why Dad?” Kyle asked innocently.

Because this time, it’s one of us that died,” Jim answered with steel in his voice. “And although we can’t go to the authorities, someone should look into it.”

Isabel noticed that Alex’s bruises had reappeared and were starting to darken. She reached down and felt his skin, and found to her dismay that he was also cooler. She quickly slipped back into their connection.

Alex was back in the parking lot, the night had grown cold, and an evil wind was blowing. Isabel thought hard, she had to know something about how to help Alex. ‘Fire Fighter Alex Taylor, she would know what to do.’ She thought back to that horrible night at the Kettle’s.

“Engine company coming in, who needs help?”

“I got a first responder with a closed head injury. Have then pull equipment off the wagon for a full board job. Come on buddy, what else have we got going on here.”

“Entry wound! I got a gunshot would to the chest!”

“Lets get the coat off,”

“C-collar going on, head’s secure,”

“I think we got a vest here,”

“He’s going shocky, get him onto the floor.”

“We got a rifle over here that will burn through any vest.”

“Get him stripped and let's make sure we don’t miss anything.”

‘That’s it! I must have missed something.’ Isabel thought as she started taking his clothes off. As she removed his shirt she saw a mark under his waistline. She unbuckled his jeans and pulled them down along with his shorts. She was too concerned about his health to be embarrassed, but did think back to a recent Cosmo article, ‘Oh well, high side of average, can’t have everything.’ She rolled him onto his side. His backside was an angry red and purple. ‘Oh Sweetie, that little bitch shot you in the ass.’ Isabel placed her hand on the wound and tried to heal him.

Alex screamed, “Aaaggghhh, it hurts!,,,”

Ava ran over to Isabel. “Wha's the matta?"

“I found another injury,” Isabel choked out, visibly panicked.

“Okay,” Ava instructed calmly. “Give me your hand again.”

Isabel closed her eyes and re-connected with Alex. This time she was able to see the healing take effect. She watched as his color improved and he became visibly more comfortable.

Amy got up from the table where she had been sitting since helping with Kyle. She had been watching everyone, trying to take everything in.

“Come with me,” she said to Maria. “We’re going home. I’m getting you away from these,,, from this.”

Michael heard Amy. “I’ll take you home.”

“No,” Amy exclaimed. “I’m perfectly fine to take my daughter away from here.”

Michael didn’t think either woman was fit to drive, especially Amy. “It’s not open for discussion. I’m responsible for Maria’s safety, and I won’t leave her side until she’s safely in your house.”

Maria took Amy’s arm and they followed Michael towards the door, but Amy stopped in front of Jim. “You knew about this. You knew Maria was in danger and didn’t tell me. I trusted you, but most of all I trusted you with my daughter.” She slapped Jim’s face as hard as she could. Maria was shocked, but Jim didn’t flinch. He didn’t react at all, in fact he was expecting something like this, and in a way felt he deserved it. She slapped him a second time, forcing Maria to take action as Jim would not defend himself. Maria moved Amy away from him, “Mom, let's get you out of here before anyone else gets hurt.”

**********
Michael escorted the women into their house, and once on familiar territory, she really let Michael have it. “I welcomed you into this house, and I don’t even know what you are.”

“You know who I am,” Michael stated calmly, the sense of loss in his eyes having not spread to his voice yet. “I’m the same person, you’ve come to know, I’m just not from around here. I didn’t even start to learn who I was until we went to Midland. I love your daughter, and I will do anything for her, and for you.”

“Michael, I don’t know who or what you are! I don’t know what to think or do, so I’m going to ask you one question,” Amy demanded as she squared off in front of him. “The times you were on your ‘road trips’ with Maria. Was she in danger?”

Michael looked her in the eyes, “Yes.”

Maria looked at the expression on his face, “Michael, no,,,”

“Mrs. DeLuca, I’ve made a decision,” Michael stated. “I know you’re afraid of me, and I have to agree that I’ve changed Maria’s life, but not as much as she has changed mine. Maria has made me human, and she has taught me what’s important. What you don’t know is that the FBI has been after us for the past two years. I’ve decided to turn myself into them on the condition that you promise that you will not say anything about the others.”

“Mom, I swear to you,” Maria said coldly. “If they take Michael, we’ll go after him. We already know what they’ll do to him because they captured Max once before. They did things to him, they tortured him, they performed medical experiments on him, they did things to him that they wouldn’t do to animals.”

“Maria, your Mom’s right,” Michael exclaimed as he took her by the shoulders and turned her so she was facing him. “I won’t have you placing yourself in danger for me. Look at what has happened to everyone, think about what happened to Alex,,,” He turned and faced Amy, “At everything the Sheriff has lost.”

“Okay Michael,” Maria continued, getting in her mom’s face again. “Lets talk about Liz.”

“What about Liz?” Amy asked.

Maria answered without taking her eyes off Michael’s. “The rumors are true, Mom. Liz was shot, she was dying. Max healed her, and in doing so he changed their lives. It’s more balance. He gave up their safety for Liz’s life.”

“Maria,,,” Michael interrupted modestly.

Maria turned back to her boyfriend. “That’s why you don’t have a choice in this. Do you think Max and Isabel won’t go after you? You think I’ll let you go that easily? Alex will be right there with us. He’ll go in there for you, but when they get Isabel, he’ll go insane. They’ll have to kill him to stop him. Kyle, Jim, all of us. We’ll rescue you or die trying.”

Maria turned towards her mother. “There’s something you need to understand, I’ve never been healed, I’ve never been changed. As far as the FBI is concerned I’m just a useless human. They don’t need me, they’ll kill me first to get the others to cooperate.”

“I,,,” Amy was clearly overwhelmed. “What’s all this talk of torture and killing, They’re the government for crying out loud.”

“Mom, You’re a hippie,” Maria quipped, knowing that she was going to get her way. “Since when did you ever start trusting the government?” She then turned back towards Michael. “They’ll dissect you and keep you alive to watch. You’re the soldier, why are you giving up so easy?”

“Because sometimes the only way the soldier can save his buddies is to fall on the grenade,” Michael said softly.

“No!” Amy exclaimed. “No one’s falling on any grenades, not tonight. I don’t know what to think right now, but I do know this is a bad time,,, I need to think. The best thing to do right now is to get you both back to your friends.”

**********
Maria entered the Valenti’s closely followed by Michael. She squealed when she saw that everyone was recovering, and standing in groups. Kyle was already showing Ava around the house, Isabel was talking to Liz, and Alex was involved in a discussion with Max.

Maria ran to Isabel and Liz and captured them in a group hug. “We did it.” She then stood on her toes and kissed Isabel on the cheek, “My hero, you brought Alex back for us.”

Isabel was taken aback, but pleased. She had grown close to the twins during the past several months and was happy to have two more people, especially girls, that she could be open with.

Maria then ran to Alex and leapt into his arms. “I knew you’d come back to us.”

Meanwhile Michael sought out Max. “So what’s this, you throw a battle and forget to invite me?”

“Don’t look at me, I still don’t know what happened. The Sheriff’s going to sit everyone down in the morning and try to piece together exactly what happened.”

Amy stood next to Jim, watching the celebration. “This is too new, I don’t know what to think about it yet.”

“It’s a lot to take in, I’ve had to change an entire lifetime of prejudice,” Jim said, maintaining a little distance to allow Amy to decide how they would proceed.

“I’m sorry I hit you,” Amy said nervously before turning to face him head on. “I’m still mad, and I’m not ready to forgive you just yet for keeping this secret, but Maria told me some things. Thank you for keeping her safe.” She turned back, facing the teens, “This is the first time I have ever seen her involved in something bigger than herself. I’m proud that she seems to be doing the right thing.”

“Four kids from Earth, dating four kids from Antar,” Jim said in a lighter tone of voice. “This is the biggest event in the history of mankind, living proof that we are not alone. But instead of celebrating, I’m struggling every day just to keep them alive.”

“Look at them,” Amy said with wonder in her voice. “They have their whole lives ahead of them. They are so happy in their innocence.”

“No Amy, that’s where you got it wrong,” Jim sighed. “They have lived more in the past two years than most adults have in an entire lifetime. They have learned to celebrate every moment of happiness they can find, because they never know what’s going to happen tomorrow. We could learn a lot from them.”

Isabel approached Max, but he saw her coming and turned to face her with contempt in his eyes. “Get away from me!, What kind of monster are you? I hate you! You’re not my sister anymore.”

Isabel was dumbstruck, she took a step backwards as Max walked away. Alex took her by the shoulders and turned her so that she was facing him. Isabel looked stunned. She couldn’t be more upset if Max had hit her. Alex didn’t even know if she realized that he was there. “Get me out of here.” she whispered. “Get me out of here. Now!”

Alex led her to the door, making eye contact with Jim so that he knew they were leaving. Once outside he held her as she cried her heart out. He held her tightly, stroking her hair, trying to comfort her, until she ran out of tears. “Izzy, what’s wrong?”

She looked at him and sadly shook her head no.

He placed his hands on her face and looked intently into her eyes, from just inches away. “Izzy, like you’ve been telling me for weeks, I can’t help you if I don’t know what’s going on. You don’t have to say anything, just let me in.”

Isabel allowed the connection, and immediately felt his presence. She drank in the feeling of him, committing it to memory before she lost him forever.

“Izzy, why did Max say those horrible things to you?” he asked softly.

Her voice was still broken, even in her mind. “Sweetie, there’s something you didn’t know. Tess was pregnant. I killed my nephew.”

Isabel felt Alex stagger at her revelation, but instead of pulling away as she expected, she felt something wonderful. She felt Alex pour every ounce of love, care, and comfort that he could into her, sharing her pain.

TBC

Posted: **Mon Aug 01, 2005 8:58 pm**

Gazer Gets the Girl
Chapter 8 - Alex & Isabel 1/Tess 0

by Stargazer_md

Disclaimer: The characters don’t belong to me. If they did, the show would still be on.
Some text is borrowed from the show, I didn’t treat it any worse than the original
writers.
Summary: Izzy fights for her man.
Setting: End of S-2.
Category: Alex/Isabel with CC
Rating: Mature

Fire Fighter Alex Taylor visits us again from Third Watch.

Where were we. Isabel defended Alex from Tess’ evil clutches, but once safe at the Valenti’s, she is attacked from an unexpected source, her brother. In response, Alex gets her out of there.

**********
Alex pulled up in front of the Comfort Inn. He turned to Isabel, “Izzy, I’m going to go in and register, will you be alright?” When she didn’t respond he tried again, more insistently.

She slowly turned towards him.

“Sorry,” he pleaded. “I need my credit cards back.”

Isabel reached into her back pocket and handed him her ‘don’t leave home without it’ kit.

Alex peeled off the elastic, finding two twenty dollar bills wrapped around her driver’s license and both his and her credit cards. He also found two condoms. This shocked him. Sure they had talked about carrying a condom in case they ever lost control. In fact he even carried one, although he never expecting to use it, because with his whole being he needed to keep her safe from harm. But this was different. Was it really possible that Isabel wanted to have sex with him? Despite his growing confidence in their relationship, and no matter how much she tried to ‘condition’ him, he was not ready for that.

Alex joked to hide his embarrassment. “Hummm, ribbed for her pleasure, is that a critique of my technique?”

Isabel didn’t react at all.

Seeing that his attempt at humor had failed, he opened the door before turning to her, “I’ll be right back.”

He returned several minutes later and drove to their room. He popped the trunk open and grabbed their emergency bag, a duffle containing clothing and toiletries that they had assembled the day after her bad dream. Alex had been carrying this, a jump (first aid) kit, and a couple of other items ever since. He then opened the passenger door and offered a hand to his girlfriend. He quickly got them settled into the room.

Isabel looked around the room, “Why?”

“Because I won’t let you stay at the Valenti’s and I couldn’t take you to either of our homes,” Alex explained softly. “It’s okay, the Sheriff already told our parents we were staying out.”

She looked around the room hopelessly, “I don’t know what,,, where,,,”

Alex stepped forward and took her into his arms, “You don’t need to right now, l have you, and I will take care of you.”

“Please, I need you,” she whispered as she burrowed into his embrace. “I don’t think I’ve ever known what it is like to need you as much as I do right now.”

He thought back on the events of the evening, ‘Kyle picked me up at four, it’s a little after eleven now. How could so much happen in just seven hours? ‘Maxwell,’ he thought, ‘I’ll never forgive you for this. If it’s the last thing I ever do I’m going to beat you like a circus monkey for hurting her.’ He looked around the room and noticed their reflection in a mirror, they were a mess. “The first thing we’re going to do is get you cleaned up.”

Isabel took a step back and looked him in the eye, “Okay.” She opened the emergency bag and took out her toiletry kit. She took his hand and led him to the bathroom.

He looked into her toiletry kit, “Let’s see what you have in here.” He saw that Isabel was starting to disrobe. “Hang on Izzy,” he guided her to a seat on the commode. “Let’s wait until I have the bath ready. I don’t want to see you catch cold,” he mumbled to cover his embarrassment.

‘Come on Alex’, he thought to himself. ‘Hold it together, she needs you.’ Alex would gladly give his life for Isabel, but this was the girl of his dreams, and he was a normal teenage boy. He was facing a temptation beyond compare.

Turning back to the bag, “Bubble bath.” He read the instructions on the bottle, “Use one capful.” Alex turned on the tap, adjusting the water between warm and hot. ‘Bubbles are my friend, nice thick white bubbles.’ He dumped half the bottle into the swirling water.

Isabel watched as the tub filled with water and bubbles, “Now?”

“Ready,” Alex answered cheerfully. “Just let me give you a bit of privacy.”

“No! Don’t leave me!” she pleaded.

“I’m not leaving,” Alex replied soothingly. “I’m just going to turn my back until you’re in the tub.” He listened to her settle into the water, then turned to face her. The bubbles reached almost to her neck, but nothing could hide the look in her eyes as she watched him. He reached into her bag for her scented body wash and reached for a washcloth. Alex knelt next to the tub and gently began to wash her, well most of her. When he finished, “Can you turn your back towards me a bit?” He reached for her shampoo and washed her hair. “Okay, I’m going to open the drain and turn on the shower so you can rinse off.” Moments later, “Turn your back Izzy, I’m going to open the curtain and I have a big fluffy bath blanket to wrap you in.”

Isabel stepped from the tub, and into the safety of his arms as he wrapped her. Contented for the moment, she leaned back against the vanity allowing him to attend to his own needs.

“I’m just going to take a quick shower,,,” Alex explained.

“I’m not going to let you out of my sight,” Isabel immediately replied.

Alex stripped to his shorts and stepped into the tub. He threw his boxers out from behind the curtain, and quickly cleaned himself. When he finished he carefully opened the top half of the curtain to find Isabel’s big brown eyes fixed on him, as she handed him a towel.

Alex wrapped the much smaller towel around his waist, and stepped out of the tub. “Your hair’s still wet, let me take care of that.” He used the blow dryer to dry her hair, then led her back into the room and sat her on the edge of the bed. He reached into her bag for her hair brush, and began to stroke her hair.

“Ummm,” Isabel sighed in contentment. “You’re very good at that.”

He continued to brush her hair, caressing it with his free hand. “I’ve been dreaming of brushing your beautiful hair for years.”

“You really will do anything for me, won’t you?” Isabel asked softly, as if afraid of his answer.

He paused in his efforts for a moment. Leaning forward he swept her hair from the side of her face and gently kissed her on the tender spot just under her ear. He whispered, “As will you my love.”

He noticed her fight a yawn. “Okay, time to get you ready for bed. I don’t remember seeing any PJ’s, maybe you can use your powers on something?”

Isabel stood and then reached into the duffle, “I don’t need PJ’s, all I want is a clean pair of panties and one of your shirts. I don’t want to be an alien anymore, just your girlfriend.” She returned to the bathroom, but left the door open. “Are you all set? Can I do anything for you?”

“I’m all set,” he answered. “All I need is a clean pair of boxers.”

Isabel brushed her teeth and applied a touch of perfume, Amazing Grace, Alex’s favorite. Looking at herself in the mirror, she didn’t see a monster. She didn’t see herself yet, but with Alex’s help she would get over the hurtful things Max had said.

Isabel returned to the room to find that Alex was already in bed, and had turned down the other side for her. She walked to the bed and sat down, swinging her long legs under the covers. “I’m surprised you didn’t get a room with two twins.”

“Nope, I figured you need eight to ten hours of sleep and I plan to hold you for every one of them. Besides, I figured if I did get two twins, you would hit me up the side of the head.”

“You’re learning,” she sighed settling into his strong arms. “We might make a good boyfriend out of you yet.”

Isabel awoke in the middle of the night. She was still on her side, with Alex spooned closely behind her. Her top leg was bent forward, with Alex’s leg close behind it, his thigh resting on the inside of hers. His every breath warmed her neck, sending a tingle through her body. She drew comfort from the warmth of his body and the security of his arms. She gradually became aware that he was gently caressing her stomach.

“Not sleeping sweetie?” she asked softly.

“I don’t want to waste my time sleeping when I can relish being here with you,” Alex whispered, his breath caressing her neck.

“It’s dark, you can’t see me,” Isabel protested with a shudder.

“I can sense you. The touch of your hair on my cheek, your smell, which I have missed so much, the warmth of lying here next to you and the sound of your breathing.” He moved his hand from her stomach to her chest, accidentally brushing against her breast, “The feel of your heartbeat…” Alex noticed that she moaned when he brushed against her, and she leaned forward trying to deepen the touch. He traced his fingers in a larger circle, brushing against the top of her breasts.

“Not quite so gentle, I can barely feel you,” Isabel whined as she started to make an almost purring sound with every breath.

Alex fought a moment of doubt, then deepened his touch. He caressed the top of her breast, down her cleavage, and then the bottom of her globe.

“Inside my shirt,,,” she panted.

“No, this is fine for now,” Alex teased. “I never knew you could be so soft.”

“Not everything’s so soft,” Isabel gasped. “Keep going,,, please,,,”

Alex moved his fingertips to her nipple, finding it hard and waiting. He heard Isabel cry out at the contact. He circled it, then tugged gently, twisting it and releasing it. He gradually slowed his caresses, and touched her more gently. Gradually her sense of contentment and exhaustion overcame her excitement. Alex was happy with himself as he realized that he had lulled her back to sleep.

**********
The next morning, Isabel and Alex were getting ready to leave. “Sweetie?”

“Yea, Izzy?”

“Can I talk to my best friend for a moment?”

“Ahhmm, yea, of course,,,” he replied, confused a bit.

Isabel walked up to Alex and linked her hands behind his neck, leaning back a bit. “I want to tell you about my boyfriend.”

“Oh, you have just one boyfriend?” Alex teased. You’re so beautiful and special I thought you would have a whole bunch of boyfriends.”

“Nope. You’ve been my best friend for a long time, but I’ve only had my boyfriend for a couple of months now. I figured that I had better grab him one day when I almost lost him. The thing is, I know how to tell anything to my best friend, but sometimes it’s not so easy to talk to my boyfriend, because it’s so new, and I’ve never had anyone like that.”

“So what do you want to tell him?”

“Well, do you know how special he is?” she asked, her eyes boring into his. “I had a really rotten day yesterday, and he got me through it.”

“No, I’m sure he thinks you are a strong and intelligent woman,” Alex replied modestly. “He may have helped you a bit, but I’m sure it was nothing more than that.”

“I’m sure of it,” Isabel insisted, as she stepped closer and rested her cheek against his shoulder. “Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, I had a big fight with my brother. Do you know what my boyfriend did?”

“No,” Alex continued, playing along. “Why don’t you tell me?”

“He rescued me. He got me away from there, he kissed my tears away, and then he took care of me.”

“He did all that? He must really love you.”

“That’s not all he did, he gave me a bath, brushed my hair, and then held me until I went to sleep. But the whole time, I don’t think he ever saw me naked.”

“Well, I heard that there were an awful lot of bubbles in the tub with you; but seriously, I’m sure your boyfriend is a gentleman. He didn’t want to take advantage of you while you were vulnerable.”

“You see, that’s it, I want to be his girlfriend. I want him to want to look at me. If he went too far I would let him know, but honestly I don’t think he could ever take advantage of me.” Isabel’s voice turned soft and flirty as she melted against his body. “You know what?”

“What?”

Isabel whispered, “My boyfriend played with me last night. Just a bit, but that’s the first time anyone’s ever done that with me. I felt so special being his girlfriend like that. All I ever want to be is his girlfriend, and I want him to play with me some more.”

“I’m sure he will, but I’m also certain he wants to make sure that he never does anything that would hurt you.”

“But if he’s so nice to me, I can’t tease him about it.”

“He loves to be teased, in fact I’m sure he would be disappointed if you didn’t find a way to tease him about last night.”

“Well, do you know what my boyfriend can do for me right now?”

“Name it.”

“He can take me to the Crashdown for breakfast before we go talk to the Sheriff.” With everything that happened yesterday I never got to eat dinner. I’m so hungry, I could eat a cactus.”

“Well,” Alex said laughing. “You’d better not let your boyfriend hear you say that. After all it’s hard to be just a normal girlfriend if you have all of these strange alien cravings.” He looked around the room to make sure they hadn’t missed anything. He then closed the door and looked at Isabel, “Does the girlfriend want to drive? Traditionally the boyfriend,,,”

Isabel cut him off, pulling her own keys from her pocket. “I said girlfriend, I never said anything about being traditional.”

********
Isabel and Alex entered the Crashdown and finding their booth empty, settled in it. She noticed that while Jose was on the grill, none of the ‘regular’ waitresses were working. She excused herself and stepped into the kitchen, “Hey, Jose.”

“Good morning Miss Isabel. How are you today?”

“I’m hungry, Jose.”

“You want that I make something special for you?”

“Would you? I was thinking of that fried hot pepper omelet you made for me last week, only hotter.”

“Okay, I’ll make that for you Miss Isabel, and send it out to you.”

Isabel left the kitchen not noticing that Jeff had witnessed the conversation.

“Jose,” Jeff said, catching his attention. “I’m pleased to see you speaking to Isabel like that.” He secretly worried that he would have to fire him if he didn’t learn to treat the waitresses with respect.

“Oh yes!” Jose gave Jeff his famous gap toothed grin and nodded. “When Miss Isabel worked a couple of weeks ago we made an agreement about how I speak to her and Miss Liz and Miss Maria.”

“Really?” Jeff said astonished. “And what did you get from that agreement?”

“Oh, I get to live another day,” he said, returning to the grill.

Jeff didn’t know how to respond to this, so he walked away with a smile on his face thinking, ‘Whatever works.’

Isabel returned to the table and found that Alex had already ordered her a tall glass of orange juice, and turned it dark red with Tabasco. “Thanks sweetie,” she said, adjusting his collar while giving him a caress on the shoulders and a kiss on the cheek.

They both looked up as Liz and Maria came in with Michael right behind them. The twins sat on the other side of the booth, while Michael stood, pacing nervously.

“Space Boy, sit down before you trip over your big feet and cause a scene,” Maria said tiredly.

Making a decision, Michael leaned down and gave Isabel a hug. “I don’t know exactly what happened out there, but you and Laurie are all the family I have, and I won’t let anyone talk to you like that again."

Michael straightened, leaving everyone at the table astonished as he pulled up an empty stool and settled at the end of the booth.

Maria explained, “He worked Max over pretty good after the two of you left last night.”

“Funny thing,” Alex quipped. “Item number one on my to-do list.”

Isabel turned to Alex. “Don’t do anything until we talk.”

“Talk to him? Not very high on said list,” Alex replied dismissively.

“I’m serious Alex, let it go for a bit.”

“I don’t know Izzy,,,”

“Please? For me?”

“Okay.” Alex could deny her nothing.

Turning back to the others Isabel asked, “Any idea what the Sheriff is thinking about this whole thing?”

“He still wants to talk to the two of you, but so far everything sounds like self defense,” Liz explained.

Maria added, “He actually sounds relieved. I mean what would he do if he thought there was a crime committed.”

“He’s already in enough trouble because of Laurie,” Michael continued. “If it wasn’t for Amy getting half the parents in Roswell out to support him he would have probably lost his job.”

“Figures, we’re lucky enough to get a cop who can get along with teens and they want to get rid of him,” Maria sighed.

“Well the point is,,,” Michael paused looking at Isabel and Alex.

“Somehow I don’t think I’m going to like this,” Isabel sighed.

“If anyone else,,, if Tess turns up missing, he will lose his job.”

“Tess is gone,” Alex reminded everyone. “We don’t even have dust this time. How do we explain that?”

“We don’t,” Liz answered. “Deputy Hanson came by the house this morning to get some paperwork signed. When he saw us all there he asked about Tess.”

“Great, so the secret’s already out?” Isabel moaned.

“No. Ava changed her appearance to look like Tess and fooled him.”

“Spooky,” Maria shuddered.

“Spooky doesn’t begin to describe it,” Isabel exclaimed, her face clouded. “It’s the same thing Lonnie did to me, and Max still holds her little Vilandra confession against me.”

Alex reached over and rubbed his girlfriend’s shoulders, comforting her.

“It’s not the same thing,” Liz said. “No one’s being deceived, well no one that counts. This really works out for everyone. We can’t have Tess turn up missing, and Ava, who is still afraid of Lonnie and Rath, gets a shot at a better life.”

“This could work,” Isabel said thoughtfully. “We already need Ava to help untangle the whole mind warp mess,,, Yea, this could work. You all done sweetie? Lets go over to the Valenti’s and see what’s happening.”

“Hang on a minute,” Liz said. There’s a lot more we have to talk about.”

Alex looked at Isabel. “I’ve really wanted to spend some time with my parents this afternoon.”

Isabel looked at Liz, “This evening?”

“Yea, on my balcony.” Liz replied.

********
Jim quickly interviewed Alex and Isabel. Nothing they said differed from the information he already had. “Isabel, as far as everyone is concerned, this was a clear case of self defense. As far as I am concerned officially, it never happened.” He looked at the couch and saw Ava and Kyle talking quietly. “Let’s go in the kitchen for a moment.”

Once they were settled, Jim ran his hand through his hair and took a deep breath. “Isabel, I want you to know that if you ever want to talk to someone I’ll be here. Tess wasn’t a skin, she was one of you, and if you have any trouble with the fact that you had to kill her,,,”

“We,” Alex interrupted.

“What?” Jim asked, as Isabel also looked at Alex.

“We killed her. I had as much to do with her death as Isabel, perhaps more, because Izzy was there to protect me.” He looked at Isabel, locking eyes with her. “When Tess died I was pumping everything I had into you. Every ounce of love I’ve ever felt for you, every bit of anger at Tess for what she was doing to us, and a lifetime of fear that she was going to hurt you. I will not let you think for a moment that you alone were responsible for this.”

Isabel had tears in her eyes. She leaned down and rested her head on his shoulder as he caressed her hair.

Jim wisely chose that moment to return to the living room.

Alex and Isabel returned to the living room, looking for Ava. Jim sent them to Tess’ room, where they found her talking to Kyle. They were both a little spooked to see ‘Tess’ sitting on the bed.

Kyle noticed them first, “How are you guys?”

“We’re fine. How’s your arm?”

“Michael did a great job, I can’t even tell where I was hurt.”

Isabel looked at Ava. “How are you doing Ava?”

“I don’t know yet, happy I was able to help, but still a little freaked.”

Kyle added, “She really saved our bacon this morning, I don’t know what would have happened if deputy Hanson found out Tess was missing.”

She looked at Kyle, “Guys, can we have the room?”

Kyle shook his head and laughed as he got up to leave, “Yea sure, I’m getting used to it.”

Isabel looked directly at Ava, settling next to her on the bed, “How are you doing? Liz told me she needed help with something. If I knew it was you, I would have done something to help earlier.”

“It’s okay. Liz made sure I had something to eat every day; and last night,” Ava waved her hand around the room, “I’ve never had it this good.”

“It’s not okay,” Isabel stated emphatically. “No one should have to live in an abandoned building.”

“Isabel, I grew up in a sewer. Every day I was afraid of something, either getting caught stealing food or pissing off Rath or Lonnie.”

“Was it really that bad? I mean in our group there’s times that we don’t get along, but we would never hurt each other.”

“Too bad you can’t ask Zan,” Ava replied with a shudder. “I’ll never go back to them. That’s why I want to play Tess for a while. I just hope I can pull it off.”

“You can, we’ll all help you.” Isabel started laughing, “You just won’t be able to speak to anyone for a while.”

“I’ve never been in a small town in my life, and I’ve never been to school before.”

“You’ll be fine, you’re a hybrid. You only have to see something once and you’ll remember it. In the mean time, is there anything you need?”

“No, Look around, I’ve got everything I need.”

Isabel opened a drawer and looked inside. “Nope, your education about fashion begins now; besides, I’m not going to let you wear a dead girl’s clothes.”

Isabel walked out of the room, followed by Ava. “Come on sweetie, I’ll drop you off. I need your car, we have shopping to do.”

********
Isabel knocked briefly on Alex’s door before entering his house. “Hello.”

Gloria greeted her, “Isabel, it’s so nice to see you.” She swept the young girl into a tight hug. “You don’t come over nearly often enough.” She stepped back, leading Isabel into the living room by the arm.

“I’m always happy to visit, you make me feel like a part of your family.”

“You are part of the family.” Gloria was so happy she almost glowed. “Alex was just like his old self this afternoon. He helped his father clean the garage, and he told so many bad jokes Charles almost cried. He seems to be over whatever was bothering him, and we will never forget that you were constantly with him while he was ‘ill’.”

“Mrs. Whitman,” Isabel replied embarrassed. “You have a wonderful son, everyone who knows him was pulling for him, even my parents. I told you he took my mom to the mall the day after the prom to get the pictures developed, didn’t I?”

“Actually, I’ve talked to Diane since then and borrowed the negatives.” She pointed to an 8x10 photo of the pair on the mantle.

“Isabel walked over to the picture and caressed the frame, “I’m going to treasure that night for the rest of my life.”

“He’s upstairs getting ready for your date, why don’t you go up and get him?”

“Actually we don’t have a date, we’re just going to Liz’s to hang out, but yea, thanks.” She leaned down and kissed Gloria on the cheek before running towards the stairs.

“Isabel?”

“Yes Mrs. Whitman?”

Why don’t you and Alex plan on having dinner here tomorrow. I’m sure Charles would love to have the two of you join us again.”

“Thank you, we’ll do that.”

Isabel swept into Alex’s room, kissing his cheek in greeting.

Alex hit the power button on his computer and gave the monitor a swat for good measure.

“What’s wrong sweetie?”

“Nothing to bother you with, but I am going to need the back-up disk we made,” he said turning towards her with a big smile on his face. “Now let’s try this again.” He pulled her into his arms and gave her a proper kiss. “This is beautiful,” Alex said reaching for the necklace she was wearing. “Where’d you get it?”

Isabel’s face fell.

“I bought it for you, didn’t I?” Alex asked softly. “I’m so sorry I don’t remember, I just want all of this stuff to be over.”

Isabel took a deep breath, “No Sweetie, we’re not going to wait for this crap to be over, we’re going to start fixing it ourselves. I talked to Ava while we were shopping, and she told me that she can tell if someone has a mind warp in place because she has difficulty getting in to place another. Tess must have placed a number of them in you. That’s why I couldn’t dream walk you or connect with you. It’s probably why you remember making the back-up disk, there were so many mind warps in place that she couldn’t add any more.”

“So how do we fix them?”

“That’s the great part, we spend time together finding them, once we know they’re there they should take care of themselves, although she did say that Max should check you out again to make sure you’re healing properly. Now come over here next to me. No, better yet, go over in the corner, as far away from me as you can get.”

“Over here, why?”

“Distance, can you hear me?”

“Loud and clear. What are we, exercising?”

“Yes we are exercising, our ability to connect. I’d like to know how far we can push this. So back to the matter at hand, I’m going to give you my memory.” Isabel shared her memory of the necklace, the day he gave it to her, how he took her mom to the mall to help him pick it out while they were getting the pictures developed. “You explained how it was made of both white and yellow gold, representing our two hearts, bonded forever.”

Isabel looked at Alex with a bright smile. She reached up and touched the necklace.

Alex felt a shock as she touched the heart.

“Wow! What was that? Are you rubbing your feet on the carpet or something?”

“I don’t know, that’s never happened before.”

“So anyways,” Alex continued, “I was sitting at the food court looking at the pictures with your mom,,,”

“Sweetie! That’s not my memory, I wasn’t there,,,”

“Yea, I remember that, I remember the whole thing now.” He walked back to her and gently took the delicate gold chain in his hand. Her skin tingled where the back of his fingers touched her. He lowered his hand until he held the floating heart in it. “Yellow gold, the color of earth, white gold, the color of starlight. May I?”

“Sweetie, I’m already wearing it,” she smiled.

“Yea, but when I gave it to you I didn’t do this.” Alex placed one hand behind her neck, the other on the small of her back. He stepped closer to her, and poured his entire being into the kiss.

********
An hour later, Isabel and Alex stepped through Liz’s bedroom window onto her balcony, joining Liz and Maria.

“Okay, How are we going to get these two lovebirds back together?” Isabel asked.

“I don’t know if you’re going to be able to do this.” Liz responded. “Too much has gone on. I pushed Max away, and he went. I don’t even know if I want him back, or if I could take him.”

“Let’s reduce this entire discussion to one question then,” Maria quizzed. “Do you love him?”

“I’ll always love him, you know that.”

“Too much wiggle room Maria,” Alex said shaking his head. He turned back towards Liz, “Can you see yourself with another?” He looked directly at Isabel. “It’s ten years from now. You take your children to the park. Suddenly they yell ‘Daddy’ and run to their father. Who do you see?” ‘Our children are going to be so beautiful.’ His thought was rewarded when Isabel’s face lit up.

“Max.” Liz said softly.

“So what do we do about Future Max?” Maria asked.

“Wait a minute, who’s Future Max?” Alex asked.

Liz quickly filled their friend in on her visitor from the future.

“It figures,” he exclaimed. “Nothing’s been easy for anyone this past year,” Alex sighed, missing a momentary flash of guilt on Isabel’s face.

“This past year sucked,” Maria joined in. “Everything started to go wrong when Tess came here.”

“I’ll second that,” Alex agreed. “The first time I saw her she ruined a date with Izzy, and the last time I saw her she was trying to kill her.”

“Bottom line, nothing Future Max said about Tess matters anymore,” Isabel pointed out. “We’ll get him back for you.”

“He still slept with Tess, they were going to have a baby,” Liz moaned with a tremor in her voice.

“I don’t know about that,,,” Isabel said with doubt in her voice.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“We had a big fight the morning after the prom. Max told me that he remembered his memory training with Tess, but he thought he came home after that. He didn’t remember anything about sleeping with her until she told him she was pregnant.”

Liz was speechless, but for the first time in a long time she began to have hope.

“Do you think she mind warped him about her pregnancy?” Alex asked.

“Here we are,” Maria exclaimed angrily. “Right back to Tess. All this trouble, all this destiny crap, it started with Tess. We don’t have the Antar book. All we have is her word on it, and Max’s memories. Memories that she helped him bring out. What if it is all a mind warp?”

“Well I don’t believe in destiny anyways,” Isabel exclaimed. “My future’s right here,” she said patting Alex on the top of his leg.

Liz looked at Isabel, “The two of you have been through this, what do you know?”

“I know that Tess tried to mind warp me at school one day, and I caught her,,,,” Isabel related with steel in her voice.

“And her last attempt on me didn’t work,.,” Alex added in.

“So she isn’t infallible,” Isabel continued. “I couldn’t connect with Alex at all for the longest time, but the night of the prom, she couldn’t maintain it. With what Ava told us, and a couple of connections and dream walks we have been doing, I can usually tell where she used a mind warp to install a block or instill a false memory. Once you know it’s there, you can knock them down.”

“And we also know,” Liz added, “With Alex’s C.A.T. scan and M.R.I, there’s no physical evidence that anything is wrong.”

“What M.R.I.?” Alex asked softly.

“Isabel hesitated to respond, so Liz took his hands, “Right after you returned from Las Cruces, you started acting funny.”

“What kind of funny?” he asked.

“You forgot things, you forgot conversations,” Maria answered.

“At the time Isabel was afraid that it might have to do with when you got,,, shot,” Liz continued, “So she talked to your father about going to see your doctor, but you talked your way out of it. So she ambushed you. She asked if you remembered sleeping together the night you got hurt.”

Maria picked up the story, “You denied it, and you treated Isabel pretty badly,” she added softly. “We all told him it was true. That’s when he took you to the hospital to get checked out. We didn’t know it was a mind warp at the time, but the main thing is that it can’t be detected by medicine.”

Alex looked at Isabel, “How did you know my father would do the right thing?” No one would return his look. “You didn’t! You were willing to sacrifice your reputation for me?”

“I would have done anything to get you the help you needed,” Isabel almost whispered.

Alex, his eyes watering, didn’t know what to say. He took her hand and gently kissed it, and wouldn’t let go.

“So what do we do now?” Maria asked helplessly.

“I would say for starters that everyone talks to Ava to see if she can detect any blocks,” Isabel declared.

********
Meanwhile, Ava had just climbed into bed when Kyle knocked on her doorframe. He approached Ava, pulled her desk chair towards her bed, and sat down. “I just wanted to see how you were settling in.”

She looked around the room, “I’m still trying to take it all in.”

“Do you need anything? I saw Isabel throw out a lot of stuff on Saturday.”

“No, she didn’t throw anything out, she brought it all to the homeless shelter. She said there were people who needed stuff like that. Then we went shopping. That girl is some kind of machine. In one afternoon she bought me more stuff than I’ve had in my entire lifetime.”

“Well I wanted to tell you that I’ll walk you through school tomorrow. You don’t have to worry about fitting in; but if you need anything, like underwear and stuff, I’ll help you take care of that.”

“You’ll take me shopping for underwear?” Ava asked teasingly. “I never knew a guy who would do that for a girl.”

“Well some guys like the idea of helping to pick out,,,” Kyle started to turn red. “Well, that’s not the point. The point is I’ll help you, I’d like to help you if you need anything.”

“Everyone has been so nice to me. Kyle, I’ll relieve you if you need it.”

“Relieve me, I don’t understand?”

‘You know, Zan said guys have to dump a load every two or three days and it was my job to do it for him.”

“That doesn’t say much for his technique. I don’t think he made it very pleasurable for you.”

“Pleasure? What’s pleasurable about being bent over a trash can and having your ass pounded until you’re sore for three days?”

“Doesn’t sound like he was too concerned about your orgasm.”

“What’s an orgasm?”

“God damned Max Evans.” Kyle bellowed, his anger flashing over.

“What’s this got to do with Max?”

“Everyone I have ever cared for has tossed me over and gone running to Max. He treats them like trash, and they keep going back for more. Even his dupe treats people the same way.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry about Max with me.”

Kyle reached for her hand. “Ava, I’m sorry that you had to live that way, If I could go back and fix things I would. The thing is Buddha says we have to take responsibility for our own destinies. You can’t let Max, or anyone, treat you like that ever again.”

“I won’t,,,”

“I mean when, ahhmm, if we get together,” Kyle continued, blushing again. “I’ll treat you the way you deserve to be treated. The guy may get to ask, but the girl gets to say no. You get to decide if and when anything happens between us, okay?”

“What did Maria tell me that Tess used to call you? Buddha Boy?”

“Yea.” Kyle said, smiling.

“Do you like that nick name?”

“Yea, I guess I do.”

“Okay Buddha Boy, if you’re not going to give me my first lesson on good sex, get out of here and let me get my beauty sleep. I want to be ready for tomorrow.

********
The following day, Isabel was standing on the edge of the Quad, talking to Liz and Maria. Michael and Max were close by with Kyle and Ava.

“So how’s your first day in school going, Tess?” Max asked.

“Pretty good, although everyone’s looking at me funny, and I don’t know anything that’s on this chemistry test I godda’ take.” She reached for Kyle’s hand.” Besides, I have a good learner.”

Kyle leaned down and whispered in her ear.

“,,, good teacher,” she corrected herself.

Maria leaned towards Liz, and in her best stage whisper, “It isn’t going to take long for them, is it?”

Liz slapped her friend on the shoulder.

“Isabel,” Alex shouted as he raced through the door. “Guess what?” He reached her and took her face in his hands, looked into her eyes, and unable to restrain himself, kissed her deeply.

Isabel dropped her last textbook, and threw her arms around his neck, returning his kiss, her passion instantly at it’! peak.

Max, noticing the couple’s very public display of affection, scrawled and shook his head.

Liz and Maria hooted their approval, this being the first time since the prom they were able to see Isabel and Alex happy together.

Alex forced himself closer to her, slamming her back into a pillar. He opened his mouth wider trying to catch her lip with his teeth. He wove his hand through her hair, holding her as if his very existence depended on her.

“Someone stop this,” Max cried. He stepped close to his sister, “Isabel, Isabel,,,”

Michael looked at Max and shook his head. “I’m not going to get between them. It looks like that would be a good way of getting hurt.”

Isabel thrust her tongue deep into her boyfriend’s mouth. She fought with him, lips to lips, trying to get closer to him, to get his sweet mouth into hers. Her leg rose and wrapped itself around him, her hips grinding into his.

Max saw her leg wrap around Alex, “Isabel, your in public.” He grabbed her leg by the ankle and tried to pull it back to the ground.

Isabel had one hand in the neck of his shirt, the other raking across his back.

They could hear his shirt start to rip. “Hey, time out!” Liz cried, pulling Isabel’s hand from Alex’s back. “Isabel, you’re going to start drawing blood if you’re not careful.”

Finally, running out of breath, the couple came up for air. Alex looked directly at Isabel, his excitement evident on his face.

“What’s the big news?” Maria asked.

Alex took a moment to remember what he was going to say. “Izzy! We don’t have to behave like a couple of kids anymore, the cheese factory is going to buy my software!”

Isabel returned his stare, not hearing a word he was saying. Her eyes were locked on his, her pupils dilated until not a spec of brown was visible.

“What’s the biggest problem with dating in high school? Money.”

She licked her lips, keeping them moist, ready for him. Her face and upper chest were flushed bright red.

“How do you put gas in the tank and have something left over to take your girlfriend out for pizza and a movie?”

Her nostrils were flared, and her entire body trembled as she fought with herself to maintain control.

“Not us, we’re going to be able to do anything we want to do. That week in Boston we talked about, we’re going!”

Isabel could still taste him, her chest heaving as she drank in oxygen, in preparation of the exertions that she was readying her body for.

“Are you alright Izzy?” He reached to caress her face. “You look a little flushed.”

Isabel caught his thumb with her mouth, biting it gently. She released it momentarily, and sucked it deeper into her mouth.

Michael smiled at Max’s discomfort. Finally Max knew what the rest of them felt like during the time he and Liz were going hot and heavy in front of them.

“I can’t deal with this,,,” Max exclaimed.

Michael took him by the shoulders, “Come on bud, let’s go get you a slice or a Valium or something.”

Alex gently pulled his thumb from her mouth. “Izzy? I’m going to get you a water.”

As Alex headed for the vending machine, the twins looked at Isabel in amazement. “Are you okay?” Liz asked.

“No.” Isabel shook her head and then bent to pick up her book. “I can’t be here when he gets back. He’s not ready for what I’m going to do to him.”

“Where are you going?”

“I haven’t cleaned out my gym locker yet, my stuff’s still there. I’m going to sneak in and take a cold shower.”

“Is that all you need?” Maria asked with a smirk.

Isabel leaned in close and whispered, “That and a dry pair of panties.”

Liz reached and smacked Maria, “I so didn’t need to know that.”

“Well, we’ve got to hand it to Alex,” Maria laughed, “He really melted the Ice Princess,,,”

“Maria!”

********
After last class, Alex was waiting for Isabel at the school entrance. “Two more days, one more final, then we’re off for the summer.”

“Speak for yourself, in addition to my Spanish final I have to run a 10K for Phys-Ed.”

“You’ve been running a lot lately, think you can do it?”

“Yea, I have been running a lot lately. When I get frustrated it’s a lot better than beating up on Max. So, this is an easy A for me.”

“You’re not going to get a runner’s body, all hard and lean, are you?”

“You don’t like that?”

“Actually I love you just the way you are. I love to run my hands through your hair, I dream about the way you smell. You’re beautiful, and soft and sexy. I wouldn’t change a thing, no tattoo’s, no extra holes, nothing shaved that doesn’t need to be.”

“So you don’t like Lonnie then?”

“She isn’t you.”

Isabel walked to his passenger door, Alex hastily opened it for her. After Alex was settled down on his side, he turned towards Isabel. “Do you want to tell me about it?”

“What?”

“Whatever’s bothering you.”

“I know I said we had to go home and study tonight, but I don’t want to take a chance of running into Max. Do you think your parents would mind if I go home with you instead?”

“Are you kidding? My parents love you. If you’re there, I could run away and Pops would never notice.”

“Thanks. So what’s the deal with this software thing?” she asked.

“I have an appointment with them on Thursday morning, I was hoping you would go with me. I may be able to write a program for them, but I need your sense of business. Maybe if things look promising, we can talk to your father?”

“Okay, but before we go I want you to show me what you did, and a little bit of how the industry operates. I’m perfectly willing to take the meeting with you, but I want to be somewhat prepared.”

“Well, I have a class tonight, but I can go over everything with you tomorrow.”

“Alex, tomorrow is the last day of school, and don’t you have a night class?”

“Yea, something to do with my EMT class.”

<Continued next>

Posted: **Mon Aug 01, 2005 9:00 pm**

The next afternoon, Isabel had about an hour’s worth of work to do at her father’s office. Alex decided to wait for her, and was reading a magazine in the reception area. Jesse watched as Isabel went into the storeroom and followed her.

Alex felt an instant connection with Isabel, a moment of shock and anger. He leapt out of his chair and went down the hall finding Isabel leaving the storeroom. “I’ll take care of it.”

Jesse was leaning against a rack rubbing his face. “She’s a wild one.” Noticing the flash of anger on Alex’s face he continued, “Don’t worry, she’s a big girl. She’s got enough to go around, and besides, maybe she likes the idea of a three way,,,”

Alex grabbed Jesse by the neck slamming him into the wall next to the rack.

Meanwhile, in Phillip’s office, “,,,No Daddy, it wasn’t an accident. He touched me deliberately.”

Philip reached for the phone.

“Don’t ever touch her again.” Alex hissed, barely able to contain himself.

“Or what?” Jesse taunted.

“You want to know what I’m going to do to you?”

“You going to hit me?”

“Oh, that’s the least of your problems. You see, first I’m going to beat you senseless. Then I’m going to drag you out into the desert and break every one of the two hundred and six bones in your body, and I’ll take my time so you’ll feel every one. Then I’m going to get nasty.”

The smile faded from Jesse’s face as her realized that Alex was totally serious.

“I’m going to use every bit of Native American lore I’ve ever read to make you suffer, and I will use every bit of medical knowledge I have to prolong that suffering. I will cut off your eyelids so that you have to see every thing that I do to you. I will burn every bit of your body inch by inch, and then as the skin blisters I will peel it from your body with a dull knife. The desert sky will be filled with screams, your screams, the likes of which haven’t been heard for hundreds of years. Later, your lungs will be filled with fluids, and every breath you take will make you feel like you’re drowning. It will take you three days to die, and by then you will be praying for death to take you. I’ll look into your eyes, and at the exact moment that the last spark of life fades from them, I’ll blow my own head off and haunt you for seven times seven eternities.”

“Nice sentiment Alex,” Philip interrupted. “But I like the direct approach.” He turned towards Jesse, “I understand you like my teenage daughter?” Philip grabbed Jesse by the back of the collar and the back of his belt. “Come with me a moment, if you please.” Philip slammed Jesse head first into the door. “That’s so impolite of me, I should have opened the door for you.” He reached and opened the door, then grabbed Jesse’s collar again. Philip crashed Jesse headfirst into the wall by the door. “See that? I’m so upset now I even missed the doorway.” Philip dragged Jesse through the office smashing his head into every wall, desk and doorway that he could find, until they were outside on the sidewalk.

Philip continued to hold Jesse outside of his office. When a Sheriff’s cruiser pulled up, he threw Jesse face first onto the hood of the car. “Indecent assault on a minor. Tell Jim we’ll be down within the hour to fill out a formal complaint.”

Jim ran his hand through his hair. “Isabel, I am going to need you to make a statement, but there will be no charges brought against him, and you will not have to testify.”

“What!” Philip exploded. “You’re going to let him get away with this?”

“Mr. Ramirez is on probation for knocking up a high school girl over in Los Alamos County. He received probation because it was consensual on the girl’s part.” Jim sighed, “Now he’ll probably get out on bail sometime tomorrow, but we’ll make sure he doesn’t come anywhere near you. Besides, I don’t think Alex will leave your side until Ramirez has a probation hearing next week. With Isabel’s statement, his probation will be revoked, and he’s going to jail to serve out his seven to fifteen year prison sentence.”

The screw (correctional officer) threw Jesse into the holding tank. “You are one lucky guy. Normally we don’t put skinners (child molesters) in general population, but due to budget cuts we don’t have any room in isolation. In fact we don’t even have the money to get the security cameras fixed. Have fun.”

The guard retreated to the guard shack. ‘Hey Sarge, was that Big Eddie in holding?”

“Yea, he only lasted a week on the outside this time,” the sergeant replied.

“Doesn’t he have two daughters?”

“Yea, two daughters, both in high school, and both pregnant. He’s mad at the world because he was never there to protect them. Hey, turn up the volume,” he said as they leaned in close to the video monitor.

“,,,that’s why I like them young,” Jesse’s voice came through the small speaker. “They’re soft and smell so nice,,,”

“Is this your first time in jail?” Big Eddie asked.

“Yea, why do you ask?”

“Because I think you look soft and smell nice.”

“Oohh!” both guards exclaimed, watching the monitor. “That’s got to hurt.”

********
That night Max awoke to hear Isabel screaming from a bad dream. Despite the tension between the siblings, he still loved his sister. He got out of bed and started for her room only to find that their mom was already comforting her.

“It’s just a bad dream Isabel, nothing to worry about.”

“I hate them, I thought I was done having them.”

“Is it about what happened at work today?”

“Yea.”

Max was confused, what happened at work?

“Well Alex was there to protect you today, I’m sure he will take care of you tonight. I’ll stay here until your asleep, and then you’ll meet up with Alex, and he’ll make sure all your dreams are pleasant.”

Max leaned against the wall in the hallway, struggling to breathe. ‘Mom knows about dream walking? What else does she know? I don’t believe Isabel told her. Why does she keep defying me. I told her not to tell Mom anything about us.’

Isabel started to climb out of bed, “My red silk pajamas.”

“Oh no you don’t! There’s no need for red silk anything. You two can go dancing or have a nice picnic, and you can wear that red print sundress he likes so much.”

“Oh Mom, it’s just a dream. We’re not going to do anything.”

“Isabel, I swear, at the rate you’re going you’ll give that poor boy a heart attack. Now settle down and go to sleep.”

********
Alex swung by and picked Isabel up before heading for their meeting at the cheese factory. He was wearing the perfect software geek attire, a denim shirt over khakis. Isabel wore a crisp white suit, with her hair up.

“Did you read everything I sent over?” Alex asked her on the way over.

“Yea, I have a pretty good handle on it. I’ll talk up the deal, you handle the geek speak. We appear totally united, confident, and committed. If there are any problems we connect, he never sees us sweat.”

The purchasing agent at the cheese factory never had a chance.

Later at the cheese factory,,,
“Mr. Stanford,” Isabel continued. “SQL Server 2000 for Windows 2K is going to cost you almost $10,000, and that’s with a hefty discount. Add to that the fact that you have to license your client users, the cost of upgraded hardware, other related software, you’re looking at a $100,000 project. Your offer of $5,000 for a custom written front end application that will allow all of this to happen is totally unrealistic.”

“On the other hand,” Alex continued, “this package will result in operational efficiencies that will generate a payback of less than two years. It will also increase your finished goods inventory turns by almost a third. That factor alone will practically eliminate your spoilage losses. If you have your costing data handy I am sure Isabel can compute a dollar savings for that as well.”

“Please, like we said,” Isabel concluded, “This is a work-study project that turned out perfect for all involved. I’m sure that you would like to continue this conversation with Charles Whitman present, who would be able to enter into an agreement that both parties could live with. Philip Evans, will be counsel for our side.”

“Ms. Evans, Isabel,” Mr. Stanford said, “I seem to have underestimated your abilities,,,”

“Our abilities, Mr. Stanford. Remember, we wouldn’t be having this conversation if Alex didn’t have the ability to write a program that your company desperately needs.”

“I’m sure you’ve come here with a figure in mind.”

“Like I said earlier, we are minors, and unable to enter into a contract, written or verbal; however, I believe the sum of $25,000 for the source code of the front end application with a licensing and consulting fee of $1,000 per month, subject to terms and conditions, for a period of three years, would be satisfactory.

********
Alex dropped Isabel off before returning home. He went to his room and sat down in front of his computer. Using the back up disk that Isabel returned to him, he quickly restored his drives. Once the machine was up and running, he examined the file structure, quickly finding the program that had wiped his drives. “Very good Whitman, I couldn’t have done better myself.” He deleted that program, and performed some other overdue system maintenance.

Alex noticed an ‘Antar’ folder, and opened it. “Okay, lets take a look at this ‘book’ that Tess was willing to kill for.” Alex looked at the file list. He systematically opened the files and looked at each one.

The first file he opened was ‘source material.pdf’. Alex’s screen was filled with the contents of the Antar book. It was a man readable graphics file, as if each page of the book was scanned directly into the computer.

The next file was ‘source material.map’. This file contained the same data as the first file, but the data had been rasterized and was in a form that the computer could recognize and work with.

The third file was ‘character break out.map’. This file, which had a creation date of about a week after the second file contained what could be described as an Antarian alphabet with a corresponding binary value for each character.

Next was ‘Antar.ttf’. This was a font file that allowed his computer to display the Antarian symbols to be displayed as characters as opposed to a graphic.

The last file in this folder was ‘Antar book.bin’. When opened, this file appeared to be the contents of the book in binary code, a machine readable format that any computer could read. He recognized this file. This was the file that he was working on when Maria and Isabel helped him break the first mind warp.

Alex then opened a sub folder named ‘crypto’. In it Alex found the program that he had been trying to write, and a number of files named ‘pass01.cry’ through ‘pass34.cry’. He looked at the program and decided that it was worthless. There was no way that a home-made program was going to decrypt and translate the contents of the book.

‘You made two big mistakes Tess. The first was in thinking that I would work effectively under duress, and the second was thinking that having the book in binary was an accomplishment. This project is only starting, hell I could of got this far in less than a week if you left me alone. Now it’s going to be different, I will translate it. Not because anyone is forcing me, but because I want Isabel to have it.’ He reached for a pad of graph paper and started to outline a plan to finish the ‘Antar’ project.

********
Isabel entered her room to find Max waiting for her. She took one look at the expression on his face and knew that the unspoken truce between them was over.

“What have you been doing?” He thundered, starting in on her.

“I’ve been at the cheese factory helping Alex sell,,,”

“That’s not what I mean, and you know it. I heard Mom talking to you last night about a dream walk. How does she know?”

Isabel was hoping that Max wouldn’t realize that she had confided in Diane, but what was done was done. “I told her while Alex was in trouble. I was at whit’s end, and when I asked you for help you ignored me.”

“I knew it, I can’t even trust my own sister, this is the last time you defy me. From now on you don’t do anything without talking to me first.”

I have news for you, little brother. Liz, Alex, and I are looking at college in Boston. Every teacher in West Roswell High knows it. Mom and Dad are thrilled about it, so either jump on the band wagon or get out of my way.” She walked away, he followed.

“I am not going to allow you to break up the group. We have to stay together. There are already too many people who know about us.”

“Letting people know about us. Max, you’re wrong about that. Name one person that we let in who has hurt us.” She took a moment to gather her thoughts, “The day Liz was shot, you didn’t just save her, you saved all of us. That was the day we left our own little world, and opened ourselves up to so much more. You should know by now that we are so much better together than apart.” Isabel squared off facing Max, her hands on her hips and her face stormy. “Have you ever thought what it was like to be me? Imagine it Max, I was the only girl. You and Michael could hang out together, but I had to grow up alone until Tess found us. You’re worried about Mom? Tess was one of us, and she almost killed us.”

“Tess was one of us, if you guys didn’t resist her, everything would be alright. You said it yourself, you were born royal. We could be home by now.”

“I keep telling you Max, I am not Vilandra. I’m Isabel, and this is home.”

“No, Vilandra is who you are, that’s the life you have to lead.”

“This is who I am, look at me. I am older and more mature every day. I’m so lucky to have found the man I am going to share my life with. Look at this Max,” she quoted from a letter of recommendation, “‘Isabel Evans has really enjoyed growing up in Roswell, and as much as she loves her hometown and shows that love through hours of community service, I believe Roswell is just too small to contain the potential of a woman like Isabel Evans.’ This--this is from Mrs. Seymour at the homeless shelter. That's what she thinks about me, and I have dozens, dozens of other recommendations just like it. Do you know why? Because as far as the outside world is concerned, I'm a bright and talented upstanding member of the community of planet earth. I've played the role to perfection. Now, it is my turn. You’re talking about something that is more than a year away. Do you think we are all going to go to Roswell Community College and stay here for the rest of our lives? “Don’t make me choose Max. I guarantee you that you will not like the decision I make.”

“Isabel,,,” he grabbed her by the arm as she started to walk away. “Isabel, if I have to, I will do everything in my power to keep you here. I’ll tell Dad that Alex gave you a drug problem. I’ll notify your teachers that you have cheated on every test for the last three years. If you ever leave Roswell without my consent, I will physically drag you back. For the last time, the answer is no. Period.”

“Fine. This Isabel Evans is dead. You want to be the leader? See how it works without any followers.”

********
‘Alex? Can you hear me?’

Alex stopped talking to Liz, and cocked his head to one side.

‘Alex, I need you!’

Alex took out his cell and dialed Isabel. “Izzy? Is everything alright? I can’t make you out.”

“I need you, can you come to the house, now?”

“Of course sweetheart, I’ll be there in five minutes.” He looked at Liz, “Sorry, got to go.”

Diane entered the kitchen and sat at the table with Isabel. “Now what’s got you so upset? I heard Max just before he stormed out of here.”

“I don’t know what’s got into Max lately, but I can’t take him anymore. I’ve got to get out of here.”

“Wait a minute, what’s he doing?”

“He’s threatening me. He’s blackmailing me so he can control me, so he can control my life. He says that if I continue to plan to go to college in Boston he will tell all my teachers I cheated on all my tests. He threatened to tell Dad that Alex got me hooked on drugs. He told me he would drag me back physically if I ever try to leave Roswell without his permission.”

“What makes him think he can do that?”

“Well, he is our leader, and we have always let him make most of the decisions for us, but he is going too far now. I’m not going to let him get away with it anymore. Mom, I love you and Dad, but I can’t take it anymore. Alex is on the way over here, we’re out of here.”

“What do you mean, out of here?”

“We’ve always known that because of where we came from, we might have to run. That someone may try to hurt us or the people we care about. I never thought I would be running from Max.”

“You’re not going to do anything, not until I figure out what’s going on and how we’re going to handle it.” Diane got up and went to the phone.

Alex arrived within minutes to find Isabel in tears. He took her into his arms, letting comfort flow into her. He held her until she was ready to talk.

“Get me out of here.”

“Izzy, what’s the matter?”

“Max and I had another fight. I can’t stay here anymore.”

Alex instantly felt overwhelmed. “What do you want me to do? Are you talking about tonight?”

“I’m not staying here with Max.” She looked directly at Alex. “We always knew that it may come to a point that we had to run. My time is now. I’m hoping you’ll come with me.”

Alex responded immediately, “You say the word and we’re out of here. I will never let you go.” He softened his voice, “But Izzy, have you thought about this? I don’t want to see you lose your family, your future. You may need to get away from Max, but it isn’t time to run. We have to fix this and get your family back together.”

“You’re not going to help me?”

“I’m going to do whatever you decide. Here are your options. We can get you out of here and go back to the hotel or go camping. Then we can work on getting things back to normal. Or we can run. What will happen if we run? The first thing would be that your father calls the cops. I don’t care about myself, but how can I protect you if you’re in the car when they come for me? How can I care for you if I’m in jail?”

Isabel looked at him, realizing everything that he was willing to give up for her. “Okay, so we stay, and just for the record,” she gently smacked him, “I care a lot about what happens to you.

“Everything’s going to be alright Izzy, I promise,” Alex stated emphatically as his mind raced as he tried to figure out what to do and where to go.

Diane returned to the kitchen. “Okay, I just got off the phone with Gloria. You’re going to stay with Alex for a couple of days while your father and I get things straightened out with Max.”

Isabel looked at her mom with hope in her eyes.

“Here’s the ground rules. I’m not abandoning you, I expect you to keep in touch. I expect you to call and ask for permission before doing anything that you would need permission for if you were here. You’re going to stay in the guest room, no sleeping together. If you feel a need to cuddle you can do that on the couch. You are going to be Gloria’s house guest, not Alex’s, and I expect you to afford her the same respect as you would me.”

Diane turned towards Alex. “Alex, I think of you as a part of this family. Maybe I don’t need to say this, but I am trusting you not to take advantage of this situation. I know that the two of you are going to grow closer. I’m not going to try to stop you, but I expect you to act like a gentleman until we get this mess straightened out.”

“Mrs. Evans, you have my word. I value her safety and happiness more than my own life. I will never do anything to hurt her.”

“Mom, why are you doing this?” Isabel asked.

“Because of something that you guys seem to forget. I’m the adult here, it’s my job. I’m not going to let anything, or anyone, harm my family. I’m not going to let you run, to throw your life away.”

Isabel gave Diane a tight hug, “Thanks Mom.”

Alex considered telling Diane about his suspicion that Max may not be in entire control of his faculties, but decided not to for the moment. He did not know how much she knew about the aliens, and to be honest he was not yet ready to discount what Max had been doing to hurt Isabel.

“Alex, your mom is expecting the two of you for dinner, don’t disappoint her. I’m going to call Philip and tell him that he needs to come home.” Reaching for the phone, “Isabel, call me, every evening, ok

“I will Mom,” Isabel said with a smile.

********
Friday evening, Alex and Isabel joined Liz on her balcony. “Have you ever had three people involved in a dreamwalk before?” Liz asked.

“No, but I think if Alex and I connect before I dreamwalk you, it should work.” Isabel gathered sleeping bags, pillows, and a picture of Liz. “Come on sweetie, settle down.”

“Hey, what are you two going to do over there,” Liz teased.

Isabel knelt next to Liz, who was reclining in her chase lounge. “You don’t think I’m going to miss a chance to snuggle with Alex, do you?” She reached out and caressed Liz’s forehead, brushing her hair back and lulling her to sleep. She then settled down resting her head on Alex’s shoulder. “Okay sweetie, we have to time this just right. We have to nod off at the same time, and I have to touch her picture just before I do.”

Moments later, Alex, Isabel, and Liz found themselves walking through the streets of Roswell. Liz stopped and looked at her friends. “Okay, where do we go from here?”

“Well,” Isabel concluded, “We only know of one thing that is unique to you. Future Max. I think we have to start there.”

“He was in my bedroom, and on the balcony. What do we look for once we get there.”

“From what Ava was saying, she ‘sees’ blocks, and then you can knock them down. She can’t go places where the mind warp is still in place.”

“Really?” Alex said, “I’ve got just the thing for that.” He walked to the curb, put two fingers in his mouth, and let loose with an ear piercing whistle. Several blocks down a fire engine stopped at a light. When the light changed the engine turned towards them and pulled to a stop next to Alex.”

The driver shut the diesel down. She climbed out and joined the friends on the sidewalk. “Whitman, what’s up?”

“Hey Taylor, I need to borrow a beater.”

“Take mine, it’s back by the operators panel.”

“Alex, can I introduce Isabel Evans and Liz Parker. Liz is one of my oldest friends, and Isabel is my girlfriend.”

“Alex Taylor,” the firefighter said introducing herself, shaking hands with the girls. “I understand you terrorized the emergency room and drove the admitting clerk to tears.”

“I did what I had to do for him,” Isabel explained. “And I owe you a debt of gratitude that I can never repay.”

“No, just part of the job.”

Alex took a look at the engine. “FDNY?” (Fire Department of New York City)

“It’s an American LaFrance Pioneer II. Custom built. It’s the engine I was trained on at the academy in New York. It had been retired for a couple of years, with all of the medical and rescue equipment we carry now we need something bigger, but this was the best rig you could get when it was new.”

(Authors note: I know FDNY uses Pierce equipment, but got to play with a Pioneer II and fell in love with it.)

Alex took a good look at the engine, which was painted white over maroon metal flake with a generous amount of gold leaf lettering on the doors. “This is a sweet looking truck.”

Alex Taylor hung her head, shaking it, “Alex, Alex, truck? You disappoint me.” She pointed to her badge. “Blue emblems, engine company, we carry water. Truck companies have red emblems, and they carry ladders.”

“Oh, I won’t make that mistake again,” Alex said, abashed.

Taylor and Isabel exchanged a smile, both enjoying a good tease.

“So how did you end up in Roswell?” Alex asked.

‘Well, I’m third generation FDNY. My grandfather’s retired, but my dad’s a battalion chief. When I graduated, I was assigned to a nice safe company in a nice safe neighborhood. I was never Fire Fighter Taylor, I was always Chief Taylor’s daughter. I wanted to make it on my own, so I went to the IAFF (International Association of Fire Fighters) and answered the first job posting they had. I still belong to local 94 in New York, and I’ll go back someday. So where are you guys headed?”

“The Crashdown.”

“Ever ride a fire engine?”

“Can we?” Liz asked. “That would be cool.”

Taylor watched as Alex helped Isabel and Liz climb onto the tailboard. He made sure the safety straps were securely under their arms as Taylor returned to the cab. When everyone was ready Alex reached over and pushed a waterproof button twice, ringing a buzzer in the driver’s compartment. Taylor turned on the lights and siren, and with a blast of the air horn pulled out onto the street.

Liz and Isabel were fascinated, looking forward over the top of the engine. The wind blew their hair back, and they watched as every traffic light turned green. Taylor took the long way to the Crashdown so they could enjoy the ride, but eventually they arrived with a blast of air brakes.

Alex helped Isabel and Liz down, and they walked forward. He took a pick-ax from the side of the rig.

Taylor leaned out the window, “I don’t know if it’s the chili I had for supper, or the glass of wine I had before going to bed, but I’m having a blast. Do you think I can hang onto this for a while?”

“Go ahead,” Isabel replied, “it’s your dream.”

They stood back as the engine roared off, and then headed to Liz’s room.

“Now what do we look for?” Liz asked.

“Well, when we found a couple of odd and ends in Alex’s mind, the blocks were pretty obvious.”

“Well, that looks obvious to me,” Alex remarked as they noticed that the window in her bedroom had been bricked over. “This shouldn’t be too hard, it isn’t being maintained. Look at the mortar, it’s starting to crumble. Let me have some room here.”

Liz and Isabel stood back as Alex used the back side of the beater. He hit a single brick repeatedly until he had a small hole. He then concentrated on the neighboring bricks expanding the hole.

Liz told Isabel, “Future Max is going to be standing there. I don’t want you to be shocked, the years have been hard on him. His hair is long and a little unkempt, and he’s lost everyone, given up everything to come back here.”

Alex took one last swing, and the rest of the bricks fell, revealing the balcony outside.

They were able to see a figure with long hair, long curly hair, long blonde curly hair. “Tess,,,” Liz gasped.

TBC

Posted: **Mon Aug 08, 2005 10:32 am**

Gazer Gets the Girl
Chapter 9 - Alex, Isabel, and the Company
by Stargazer MD

Disclaimer: The characters don’t belong to me. If they did, the show would still be on.
Some text is borrowed from the show, I didn’t treat it any worse than the original writers.
Summary: Izzy fights for her man.
Setting: End of S-2.
Category: Alex/Isabel with CC
Rating: PG-13

Where were we? Isabel, Liz, and Alex are sharing a dreamwalk looking for problems, but where Liz expected to find Future Max, they found someone else,,, Tess.

**********
Liz broke out of the dream-walk screaming. She realized immediately the implication of seeing Tess where she thought Future Max should be. Everything that had happened to her for the past half year was a lie. She didn’t drive Max away to save the world, she drove him to Tess. She had broken his heart and that loose legged bitch was right there waiting to console him.

Her screams awoke both Isabel and Alex. After a moment to orient herself, Isabel knelt next to Liz and worked to calm her. Her greatest fear was that Liz’s screaming would attract attention. If her parents heard her, they would face questions that no one could answer. She placed her hand on Liz’s forehead and gave her a calming burst.

“Alex,” Isabel commanded. “Go down and get Maria.”

Alex ran downstairs, finding Maria in the group’s booth. He signaled her from the kitchen, waving her in so that he could talk to her. Max watched as Maria went to talk to Alex. Noticing their look of concern, he went to see what the problem was. Maria nodded to Alex then ran up the stairs. Max tried to follow, but his way was blocked by Alex.

“Let me through,” Max demanded.

“No Max. Lately every time you get near Liz you do her more harm than good.”

“I’m going up there, I’m going to Liz.” Max grabbed Alex by the wrist to push past him, but moments later he found himself headed back towards the kitchen.

“You like that move? I saw a beautiful blond woman do that in a Stephen Segal movie.”

Max faced off against Alex again. “Why are you acting this way?”

“Why? Because you’ve been acting like an asshole lately. You’ve turned on every one you love. Isabel forbid me to intervene on her behalf, but no one said anything about my not protecting Liz.”

Max charged Alex a second time. This time he got knocked across the room, landing on his ass.

“I can go through you any time I want,” Max said. “You must realize that.”

“You hurt me and you’ll answer to Isabel and Michael. What does it tell you when your own family feels a need to protect your girlfriend from you?”

Max took a deep breath and started in again, but Alex stopped him. “Listen to me Max. The past couple of months have been hard on all of us, we’ve all needed a little help to see what was real. I’m not saying that anything is wrong, or that you need anyone’s help. What I am saying is that the only way you’re going up there is to agree to let Isabel and,,,” Alex paused a moment, choking over the name, “Tess check you over.”

“Whatever it takes. Just let me go to her.”

Max appeared at Liz’s window. Isabel and Maria moved apart so that Liz could see him. Liz stood and held her arms out as Max bolted through the window. They came together and he supported her as another burst of tears arrived. All of the conflict and hurt of the past months were pushed aside. They were still soul mates, and no matter how badly they had hurt each other, they still needed one another.

Max ran his hand over Liz’s hair. “Don’t worry Liz, everything’s going to be alright.”

Liz took a step back, sniffed, and looked up at Max’s eyes. “No, everything’s not going to be alright. Too much has gone on Max. I don’t know if we can fix things.”

“Liz, I swear to you, I’ll do whatever it takes. I have been miserable ever since you ran out of the pod chamber, and the biggest mistake I ever made was not dropping everything and running after you.”

“I’ve got a lot to tell you Max,,,”

“Not now Liz. All that stuff can wait ‘till tomorrow. I just want to hold you tonight.”

**********
Amy didn’t get an answer to her knock, so she let herself into Jim’s house. She had not talked to him since that horrible night almost two weeks ago, and she felt it was long past time that she did. She found Jim sitting in the dark, his face in his hands. She sat next to him on the couch. “Jim?”

Jim’s face snapped up. “Amy, I didn’t hear you come in.” There was a touch of embarrassment in his voice, having been caught at a bad moment.

“It looks like you have a lot on your mind.”

“Well, you know how it is,” he replied, recovering quickly. “It’s all part of the job.”

“No I don’t know how it is. Why don’t you tell me,” she said, turning on the couch towards him.

“Not my style Amy. You know, tough independent lawman.”

“Well then, I’ll tell you what I do know. I have spent the past two weeks getting to know Maria and Michael again. I love Maria, and I am so proud of the young adult she is turning into. But I’m especially proud of Michael. He has grown and matured so much these past two years, especially this past summer. I found it hard to believe the things he has tried to go through alone, and that’s before I found out about how unique he is. He’ll probably never admit it, but you have been a major inspiration to him. He respects you for how you watch over the group, not to mention all of the teens in the town.”

“Michael is turning out to be a fine young man. Maria could do much worse picking a guy to bring home for Sunday dinner.”

“That’s all well and good, and in another thirty years, when Maria’s done being my baby, she can bring him to dinner and we’ll talk about their dating.”

Jim laughed, “I don’t think you have thirty years.”

“There. You look so much better with a smile.” Amy looked at him and waited.

Jim took one look at Amy. She had an open expression, neither pushy nor judgmental. Jim realized that maybe it was time to take advantage of the fact that there was another adult that could share some of his burden. “I almost lost them Amy. Not Maria, and Michael wasn’t there. But the rest, I almost lost them all. I invited Tess into my home and look what she did. I’m supposed to be the adult. I’m in law enforcement. What does it say about me that I failed to judge her character so badly.”

“You misjudged her character? The entire town misjudged her species. Face it Jim, we were all fooled by a master, there’s no fault in that. And as far as the kids go, they’re all out right now eating pizza, watching movies, and trying to sneak a quick feel of each other. In other words they’re acting just like normal teenagers.”

“Sneaking a feel? You mean like this?”

Amy laughed, happy that things were back on track.

**********
Later that night Gloria awoke and quietly crept out of bed. In what had become a middle-of-the-night ritual she pulled on her robe and quietly passed through her bedroom door into the hallway. What she saw there surprised her. Isabel had insisted that both she and Alex sleep with their doors open, now she understood why. Isabel was standing in his doorway watching him sleep. She watched for a moment as the younger woman wiped a tear from her eye and settled more comfortably against the doorframe. Gloria gently cleared her throat so as not to startle her as she walked closer.

Isabel turned toward the sound, noticing Gloria in the gentle glow of the hallway nightlight. She stood erect, and wiped her face again.

Gloria placed a finger to her lips, quieting Isabel, and then led her by the arm downstairs. She sat Isabel at the table and then prepared two cups of tea, drawing boiling water from the Insinkerator. “This is one of my favorite appliances. I can have a cup of tea whenever I need one without waiting. I’ve become quite fond of Nighttime Slumber.”

"You still feel a need to watch over him, don't you?"

"I won't let anything happen to him. He's been through so much these past several months."

"Charles and I will never be able to thank you for everything you've done."

Isabel looked down at the table. "I wish you wouldn't say things like that. It's not true. What Alex never told you, because he would never say anything bad about me, is that the first time he called me from the hospital I hung up on him."

"What? I don't understand? I know you went to the hospital and took care of him."

"He had to call me back. The first time he called, I was having a conversation, and I blew him off."

"Isabel, I'm sure you didn't mean anything by that."

"I don't remember who was there, or what we were talking about, but I thought it was more important than Alex."

"Did you know he was hurt the first time he called?"

"Well,,, not really."

"So you were being polite to the people you were with. Taking a call while you are talking to someone else is so rude. Tell me Isabel, what did you do when you found out he was in the hospital?"

"I went there and took care of him."

"Oh no! Isabel, I think you're leaving a couple of things out. Now you claim that Alex had to call you back, right?"

"Yea, I should have listened to him the first time,,,"

"Then you stole a jeep, ran every red light in town, committed a felony by using a false ID, terrorized the entire emergency department, and didn't leave his side for three days. Not to mention the fact that you have been here almost every day for the past two months while he wasn't feeling well. Did I leave anything out?"

"No." 'Just the fact that he got shot in the ass defending me from an alien assassin,' she added silently.

"Good. You should know that Sheriff Valenti made a point of telling us everything you did that night, he's very proud of you. And don't forget Maria's impassioned plea on your behalf." Gloria took another sip of tea to gather her thoughts. "Charles and I have always thought of Liz and Maria as part of our family. They are the sisters that Alex never had. But you mean more than that to him. Alex was never interested in girls. He never dated, he never had a crush on anyone on TV, he'd never been kissed. He just hung out with Liz and Maria, and if we asked him about someone special, he would explain that he was waiting for her, for you. You're not just a part of this family, you're a part of him. I don't think he would be complete without you."

"I don't know what to say," Isabel responded, with a beautiful smile on her face.

"Then if you're not tired, make yourself comfortable. There's a chair in his room."

"Thank you, but we promised both of you that we would honor the rules."

"Isabel, Diane and I both know that you and Alex are going to be together. We all want to see that happen, but we don't want to see the two of you make a mistake that will change your life before you're ready for it. So we're providing a little artificial will power to the both of you. I think if the two of you honor our intentions, we can bend the rules a little."

"Thank you, for everything," Isabel said, kissing Gloria on the cheek as she went back upstairs.

**********
Maria noticed that Michael was talking to Jose as he took off his apron. “Where do you think you’re going Spaceboy?”

Michael looked at Maria with a mischievous grin. “Actually I swapped a couple of hours with Jose. I have a date with the second most beautiful woman in Roswell.”

“I knew it, you bastard.” Maria tried to bitch slap him, but seeing the gentle smile on his face she realized he was teasing her. “So who is the second most beautiful woman in Roswell?”

“Isabel.”

“And the first?”

“You are.”

“What?” Maria asked in amazement. “You think I’m more beautiful than Isabel?”

“You’re more everything than everybody. That’s why I love you so much.”

Maria’s eyes misted as she stepped into his arms. “Awwww, why is it that every time I go to slap you, you go and say something nice.”

“I guess it’s because with everything that’s been going on lately I’ve come to value the people that mean the most to me.”

“So why are you visiting her on a work night?”

“Well, three reasons. First, because she’s my sister and I haven’t spent much time with her. Second, because Alex has some class tonight and he doesn’t want her left alone. And third, well because she’s my sister and I want to treat her to my special cayenne popcorn.”

“Ewww, that sounds disgusting. I’ll tell you one thing Spaceboy, if you ever scramble my insides and make me crave that crap, I’ll ruin your sex life.”

“But Ria, you like my sex life as much as I do.”

“Who said anything about me giving anything up?”

“Oh, so that’s how this works.”

“And don’t you ever forget it, now go pick up the second most beautiful woman in Roswell.”

“I’m going, but not until I kiss the first most beautiful woman in Roswell good bye. Call me when you get home tonight.”

Maria’s face glowed as she watched him leave.

**********
Michael cleaned his apartment, the whole time thinking that he was dead if Maria ever found out that he cleaned for Isabel. He finished just as she arrived. Isabel brought the movie ‘Family Man’ staring Nicholas Cage and Tea Leoni, and Michael took care of snacks.

After the movie finished Isabel was quiet. “That poor man. He was given a glimpse of the perfect life, just long enough to fall in love with it, then it was taken away from him.”

“It’s just a movie, Iz. It isn’t real.”

“And what about us? Is what we have real?”

Michael realized they weren’t talking about the movie anymore.

How do you deal with the fact that you killed Pierce?”

“I don’t, well not exactly.” He reached and took her hand in his, looking at her. “Isabel, look at me.”

Isabel raised her face and met his eyes.

“After we rescued Max, I was really torn up. I had all this anger inside me that Pierce had turned me into a killer. I mean, I’m supposed to be the soldier, but I wasn’t able to deal with it. I tried to keep it all inside, didn’t talk to anyone.”

“I’m sorry Michael, I never realized you were going through that.”

“Well, you had your hands full and then later on you had the whole Whitaker thing.”

“Whitaker’s different. She wasn’t human and she attacked us. I did what I had to do.” Isabel paused. “That didn’t affect me like,,, Tess did. Pierce may have been an asshole, but he was a human. How did you come to grips with it?” Isabel was displaying all of her tells, wringing her hands, biting her lip, looking at the floor as if she was afraid of the answer Michael would give her.

“Something the Sheriff told me. He wasn’t trying to lecture me, wasn’t trying anything really. He just put a thought in my head and let it take root.”

“What did he tell you?”

Michael took both her hands in his and leaned in close. “Isabel, you can’t think about Tess, you have to think about Alex. Every time Tess pops into your mind, you have to think about what she was doing to Alex. You have to remember how she hurt everyone. Think of Max, think of Liz. Kyle got his arm ripped open, he could have bleed to death. She was trying to kill you, she did kill Alex.”

Isabel looked at Michael with a ray of hope in her eyes.

“You can’t ever think that you killed Tess. Every time you think of that night you have to think of the people you saved. Think about Alex. Think of your brother, Liz and Kyle. None of them would be here right now if it wasn’t for you. Think of me and Maria. If not for you I would have lost both you and Max. I don’t think I could go on if I lost the two of you. It won’t happen today, or tomorrow, but the way you think of that night will change.”

“I hope so, I hate feeling this way.”

“Have you talked about this with Alex?”

“I can’t talk to Alex about this, If it weren’t for me, none of this would have happened to him.” She continued quietly, “He’ll blame me.”

“Listen to me Isabel, I can tell you two things about Alex. First, you can tell him anything. And second, he would never hold anything against you. Are you feeling better now?”

“Yea, I think so.”

“Good, because I’m getting sensitived out here.”

That got a laugh out of Isabel.

**********
Alex let himself into the kitchen, signaling his mom to stay quiet. He walked to her and kissed her in greeting. “Hi Mom, is Izzy home yet?” He whispered.

“She’s in the living room waiting for you to come home.”

Alex crept to the door way and looked at her. She was in the living room, lying on the floor. She had several fashion magazines scattered around her, and she was drawing in a sketch pad. She had already changed, but tonight instead of a tank and shorts she was wearing red satin shorty PJ’s.

Gloria, thinking back on her conversation with Isabel the night before, thought it humorous that they would spend time watching each other. Alex noticed his mom smiling at him, and pulled back into the kitchen.

“I love seeing her so happy and peaceful. I wish I could give that to her all the time.”

“She never seems to have a care in the world.”

“I wish that were true Mom, but she has monsters that she hides from everyone. She keeps them under her bed, and they only come out at night. I hope you never see her have a nightmare, because it will rip your heart out. I would do anything to make them go away.”

“Sweetie?” They both heard come from the living room. Isabel came skipping through the door. Her face lit up when she saw Alex. “You’re home,” she squealed as she flew into his arms.

Gloria smiled, watching them kiss. “Well, now that everyone’s in for the night, I’m going to bed.” She looked at Alex. “You make sure everything is locked tight before you go to bed.”

“I will Mom, goodnight.”

Isabel skipped over to her and kissed her cheek, “Goodnight Gloria.”

”Gloria? She told you to call her Gloria?”

“Yea, Why?”

“Because she didn’t do that to my brother’s girlfriends until they were almost married.”

Isabel took Alex by the hands and led him to the couch for some much needed snuggling. “Well maybe she knows something we don’t.”

“Yea, maybe she thinks that way because we’re acting like an old married couple.”

Isabel turned on Alex with a mixture of outrage and laughter on her face. “Old!” She slapped him on the shoulder then settled with her head on his lap. “You be careful who you call old.”

“So what’s up for tomorrow?” Alex asked as he slipped his hand over her stomach and started to gently caress her.

Isabel sighed with contentment. “I’m going to be at the homeless shelter all day. The Red Cross is having a blood drawing.”

“Why did you switch?”

“Because you’re caresses are turning me into a pool of goo, and this makes me feel closer to you. What are your plans for tomorrow?”

“I’m going to be on the computer all day. I want to finish the modifications the Cheese Factory needs, and I also need to get our business plan finished.”

“Are we going to be ready for Friday night?”

“I don’t see why not. And while we’re on the subject, do you want to go to Albuquerque with me on Saturday? I need to get some stuff at the computer show.”

“Sure. Then we can swing by the mall. I have to pick up a birthday present.”

”Izzy, I already asked you not to make a big thing about me.”

“It’s my boyfriend’s birthday. You have to expect that I’m going to make it special for you. Now Sweetie, if you really want to make me happy, Trude wants you to go a little higher and to the left.” Isabel was surprised but pleased when Alex did exactly as she had asked.

After a couple of minutes, Alex decided to increase the amount of pleasure she was feeling. He slowly slipped his hand lower and lower until he approached her waistband. Isabel reached down, took his hand, and returned it to her breast.

“Before you say anything, that was a matter of timing, not a lack of desire. I expect you to try that again in a couple of days.”

“Bad timing?” Alex was initially confused, but then blushed as he realized what Isabel was telling him. “Somehow we never seem to get an even break.”

“I don’t know Sweetie, I think the fates have been pretty kind to us.”

“Yea, I have never been as happy as these past several weeks.”

“Come on Sweetie, more goo, more goo.”

Alex agreed, the fates were very good to him.

**********
Isabel got ready for bed. She had a photo of the group taken by Amy the night of the prom. It was the only picture of Max that she had in her wallet. She touched the photo and fell asleep.

Isabel was at the entrance to the athletic field behind the school. She walked onto the football field wondering what Max had eaten for supper to cause him to have a dream about football. She saw the Comets settle down for the snap. The quarterback shoved his hands into the center’s crotch, who was bent over obscenely in front of him.

“Ugh, I always hated football,” Isabel thought.

The quarter back shouted out the count, “Gonna’ get laid,,,”

“I know that voice,,,” Isabel realized.

“Gonna’ get laid,,,”

“Kyle? What are you doing in Max’s dream?”

“Hut, Hut,,,”

The center snapped the ball into Kyle’s hands, and then with explosive fury knocked the entire middle of the defensive line onto their asses, clearing a hole.

Isabel recognized the center. “Buddha?” Isabel exclaimed. “Buddha plays football?”

Kyle reared back and threw a mighty pass high into the air and straight down the middle of the field. He hesitated a moment to watch the ball fade from sight and then started running downfield.

The spectators started screaming like crazy, making that sound unique to when the ball is in the air. The announcer was shouting into his microphone, “Ten seconds left and the winning pass is in the air,,,”

“I must have touched the wrong person in the picture,” Isabel realized.

Kyle sprinted down the center of the field, out distancing all of the defenders, and just as he crossed his own goal line he reached up and effortlessly caught the ball.

“Kyle Valenti,,,” the announcer shouted, “With an unassisted ninety-nine yard bomb gets the goal, wins the game, clinches the state championship, is awarded the season M.V.P., earns a college scholarship, and gets the girl of his choice. What a play ladies and gentleman!”

Kyle tossed the ball over one shoulder, then removed his helmet and tossed it over the other shoulder. He basked in the adoration of his cheering fans who threw roses, money, ladies undergarments and porno magazines at him.

“Oh my God, Kyle, you’re a living legend in your own mind,” Isabel said laughing.

She watched as Kyle headed for the sidelines, directly towards the cheerleaders. There were six cheerleaders, all with short blue hair, numerous piercings and tattoo’s, and horrible black fishnet stockings. They had their pom-pom’s in front of their bodies.

“Ava?” Isabel wondered. “Six of them? Oh boy, this guy’s mind is writing checks his body can’t cash.”

Seeing Kyle get closer, the cheerleaders started to shout, “Kyle, Kyle, he’s our man,,,” They started to swing their pom-pom’s in the air.

At this point Isabel realized that the cheerleaders were naked, well except for the black fishnet stockings. “Okay girl, time to wake up, I really don’t want to see this. Any time now, wake up and we’ll get a nice glass of water.

The cheer continued, “He’s going to make us scream like no one can,,,”

To her dismay, not only did Isabel not wake up, but the cheerleaders started to perform a series of high kicks. “Kyle, you are so dead. Not only are you dead, but tomorrow night you are going to have a ringside seat at a naked sumo wrestling match.”

Isabel awoke with a gasp. 'Oh my, I don't know if I need a glass of water, a hot shower, or to wash my mouth out with soap.' Instead she leaned over and turned on the light on the nightstand. She took the photo and very carefully touched Max's image. 'Okay, careful, this time I want to get it right.

Isabel found herself in the dreamscape again. She looked around and called Max’s name. She could sense him, and moved to the area where his presence felt strongest. “Max? Where are you? I know you’re here.” When Max’s presence felt strongest, she noticed to her dismay that her feet were being surrounded by a gray mist. The mist felt cool on her skin, and chilled her heart. “I know this feeling. This is the same feeling I had when Alex was lost to me. I couldn’t reach him because he had been mind warped, and his dreams were closed to me. It must be the same way with Max.”

Isabel decided to stay and fight the mist. She had been able to break down Alex’s blocks during a connection, maybe she could break through to Max in his dreams. Suddenly the mist started to swirl and envelop her. The mist became like a malevolent being. Isabel could feel a great emptiness in the mist, a total lack of feeling and emotions, of broken and lost memories. Suddenly the mist touched her being, reaching into the dark corners of her mind, drawing forth every forbidden memory that she struggled to keep hidden.

Alex at the Kettles as the bullet slammed into his chest. Max’s mind is closed. The paramedic: “Your boyfriend’s a walking, talking dead man.” Max at the rest stop struggling to revive Alex. Max’s mind is closed. Alex’s mind blocking her dream walk. Alex throwing himself in front of her as Tess fired at her. Max slumped over Alex at the rest stop. Kyle dragging Alex from the trunk of the car. Max’s mind is closed. “Oh Sweetie, that little bitch shot you in the ass.” She saw the face of the nurse at the hospital, “Do you really understand what I’m saying?” Tess shooting a beam at Max and the others and missing by inches. “Walking, talking, dead man.” Alex not responding to her call for help and then finding him face down on the pavement. She watched again as she lost Alex, and knew that she would now lose Max. “DEAD MAN.”

“NO!” Isabel slammed upright in bed. “NO!.. Max, No! Alex! ALEX!!!”

Charles awoke with a start. It took him a moment to realize what was happening, but another burst of screaming spurred him to action, as the hallway light turned on. He climbed out of bed and wondered who was screaming like that in a house full of boys. Realization struck, ‘Isabel! Someone’s hurting Isabel.’ He watched as Gloria ran out of the bedroom, and then followed her. He paused at the bedroom door and reached for a Louisville slugger. If someone was hurting Isabel, that person would pay a fearsome price. He stopped behind his wife, who was standing in Isabel’s bedroom door. Gloria had a look of dismay on her face, and she held her fist in her mouth, biting it gently. He stood by his wife and looked into the room.

Alex held Isabel, cradling her head to his shoulder. She continued to scream, the sound almost animal like. He rocked her and talked to her, desperately trying to calm her. He reached out to her with everything that he had. Alex held Isabel tightly, he used his voice to try to calm her, and he reached out to her with his mind.

Gradually Isabel’s screams were reduced to a desperate sobbing as she began to tire. This allowed Alex to reach her. “Izzy, I’ve got you. You’re okay. You’re here at my house.” But Alex was finally able to connect with her. This allowed him to pour every ounce of love and calmness that he could muster into her.

“Isabel, Izzy? Just say something. Come on Izzy, talk to me. Let me in.”

“Alex? Is that you?”

“I’m right here Izzy, I’ve got you,,,”

“I saw you killed. I lost you again.”

“No Izzy, it’s a dream. I’m right here.”

“Alex?”

“I’m right here Izzy, I’ve got you.” Alex continued to hold her against his chest, and started to stroke her hair. “I’ve got you Izzy,,, I’ve got you, and I’m not going to let anything happen to you,,, I’ve got you, and I’m never going to let you go.”

“Sweetie, you’re here?”

“I’m right here. I’m never going to leave you.”

Isabel sniffled and coughed.

“Hang on Izzy, I’m going to get you a Kleenex and a glass of water,,,”

Isabel’s fears flared. “No! You said you would never leave me!” Isabel grabbed at his tank top, pulling him to her and ripping it in the process. “Don’t let me go. They are out there, I can feel them. They could get me too.”

“Sshhh, everyone’s safe Izzy, I promise you.” He continued to stroke her hair and calm her. He looked at his mom who had already reappeared with a glass of water. He took the water and offered it to Isabel, who drank greedily.

Alex became concerned that Isabel would say something that he wouldn’t be able to explain. He looked at his parents and said, “We’ll be okay now.” Noticing the baseball bat he asked, “Pops?”

Charles looked at the bat. “When I heard her scream, I thought protection. Well,,,” He looked a little embarrassed.

“That’s okay Pops, that’s my job now.”

Gloria turned toward her husband. “Come on back to bed. You have a long day tomorrow.”

“Well, what about them?” he said, pointing to the young couple.

“We’re not going to get them apart, not tonight. I’m not even going to try.” She took the bat from his hand, “Come on slugger.”

**********
The following morning, a Saturday, Isabel and Alex entered an almost empty Crashdown.

“Late breakfast?” Liz asked.

“Yea, I don’t have to be at the homeless shelter until ten, so I slept in a bit,” Isabel answered.

“Hey Spaceboy,” Maria said through the kitchen window. “Pancakes for Alex and a special omelet for your sister.”

Liz poured two large glasses of orange juice, leaving about an inch of Tabasco room in Isabel’s glass. By the time the twins had finished what they were doing, Michael brought Alex and Isabel their breakfast. The three workers, now ready for a well deserved break, grabbed sodas and joined them.

“Isabel, I don’t want to sound rude,” Maria commented, “but you look like you didn’t sleep at all last night.”

“Well thanks,” Isabel replied sarcastically. “I thought I was among friends.” She tempered her comment with a touch of a smile.

”Do you want to do this now?” Alex asked silently.

“Might just as well get it over with,” Isabel replied.

“She didn’t get a lot of sleep last night. She tried to dream-walk Max and ended up having a wicked nightmare.”

Liz and Maria were immediately concerned, reaching out to touch Isabel’s hand. Michael’s expression changed to one of determination, to watch out for his sister.

“What happened?” Maria asked cautiously.

“Did you,,, see,,, anything?” Liz added.

Isabel leaned in close to Alex, who wrapped his arm around her shoulder. “No nothing. There was the same cold gray mist as when I couldn’t dream-walk Sweetie here. But it was much worse. I found the area where I thought he was, but then,,,” Isabel shuddered.

“What happened?” Michael pressed, but with concern in his voice.

“Max’s dream turned violent,” Alex explained quietly. “It’s as if she walked into a trap.”

“Every bad memory I’ve ever had,,, I,,,” her voice trailed off.

“Tess really worked him over,” Alex concluded.

“Well,” Michael exclaimed. “Mind warping is a weapon that Tess grew up with. It’s time for Ava to go in there and kick ass.”

“Michael,” Liz rebutted angrily. “We can’t have a war in Max’s mind, we can’t hurt him.”

“Well, he’s hurting everyone,” Michael continued. “He’s treating Isabel and Liz like crap, he’s going to war with his parents, and what do you call that nightmare?

Max entered the Crashdown, hoping to make some more progress in his reconciliation with Liz. He saw the group at their booth in the back of the restaurant, and approached them.

Liz saw him approach, “Max.” This put a quick end the discussion.

“Nightmares?” Max asked. “Who’s having nightmares?”

“Ahhmm, I am,” Liz replied. Isabel breathed a sigh of relief.

Max was instantly concerned. “What was it about? I’m sorry things like this keep happening to you.”

“Max,” Liz said softly. Thinking quickly, “Not everything is about you. It was about running into some government types while I was at Las Cruces.”

“When were you in Las Cruces?” Alex asked. “I don’t remember you mentioning that.”

Everyone turned quiet and found something interesting on the table top. “Sweetie, we went to Las Cruces while we were trying to figure out what was going on with you.”

“So what’s this about running into government types?”

“We found out that you were working on a computer program,” Maria filled in. “So Liz checked out the Litvack building.”

“Yea, I’ve seen the program she had me write. It’s much ado about nothing.”

“Well, I didn’t think our visit down there was nothing. Not when I ran into that guard counter.” Liz explained.

“How did you know they were government?”

“I saw them when they escorted Liz out of the building.” Michael explained, hoping to end the debate.

Alex was unconvinced.

Liz looked at Alex. “I went in there expecting to bluff my way into a computer center.”

Max challenged Michael, “You let Liz go in there alone?”

Michael stared him down, “Where the hell were you?”

“Guys, guys,” Maria intervened. “Calm down, you’ve been eating too much red meat.”

Isabel was wringing her hands, betraying her calm voice. “Max, after Alex, who else would be suitable to bluff her way into a computer lab?”

After a pause to see if Max had anything else to say, Liz continued. “Michael zapped the card reader on the door, and I walked through a normal looking lobby. Then after going through a second doorway, I came to a security counter. I could tell just by looking at them that they weren’t campus security. They were in crisp white shirts, very professional looking. But the main thing was that there was a carved seal on the wall behind them. An eagle holding a key,,,”

“What!” Alex exclaimed.

Liz looked at Alex. “An eagle. It had a red and white striped shield over the chest, and it held what looked like an old fashioned skeleton key.”

Alex’s eyes were open wide, and his mouth hung open.

“Sweetie, what’s wrong?” Isabel demanded.

“Ahhmm, nothing.”

“Bullshit!” Isabel barked. The stare she gave Alex made Max and Michael look like amateurs in the intimidation department.

Alex didn’t have a chance. “They must be ‘None Such’.”

“What’s the ‘None Such’?” Max asked.

“Did you ever see the X-Files, when Fox Mulder met a man from another agency? It was the NSA, the National Security Agency. Their nickname came from the fact that the NSA refused to acknowledge it’s existence for decades.”

“Who the hell is the NSA?” Michael asked.

“All I can tell you is what I saw on the X-Files and 60 Minutes. It’s almost impossible to find out anything about them because so much about them is classified, but they are the best there is. They make the FeBee’s (FBI) look like a bunch of keystone cops.”

“Oh great,” Max exclaimed, a sentiment matched by everyone.

Under the table Isabel’s hand slammed onto Alex’s leg and she squeezed him with a fierce grip. This would have been uncomfortable for Alex if all she squeezed was leg, but she had grabbed a little something extra, well in Alex’s case it was something on the high side of average.

Alex pried Isabel’s hand from his, err leg, and tried to comfort her. “We don’t have anything to worry about from them.”

“How can you say that?” Michael asked.

“Because they’re not stupid like the FBI. They wouldn’t kill the golden goose. If they were after us they would have us. Max would be the ambassador to Antar, and NASA would be using the granolith to explore Saturn.”

“Sweetie? What’s with the we’s and us’s?”

“Simple Izzy, I said it before and I’ll say it again, where you go, I go,” Alex replied trying to stay calm, for after all it was the first time he had been touched there. He hoped the next time would go better.

“Sweetie, when we get done here, I’m going to kiss you until you can’t breathe,,,”

“So what do they do?” Michael asked.

“They’re an intelligence agency, but unlike the CIA they aren’t prohibited from domestic operations. I can tell you that they are a hackers nightmare. If you try something on the internet they will come after you. They have satellites and fantastic computers that the commercial sector won’t see for another five years. They do stuff like communication intercepts, but their specialty is cryptology.”

“Cryptology?” Isabel asked.

“Code breaking.”

“The destiny book, Izzy. That has to be why she had me there.”

“Well then, we don’t have to worry about them.” Max decided.

“Maybe so, but I won’t feel comfortable until I can figure out how Tess could get a high school junior into a secured facility like that. Somehow I don’t think everything’s right here.” Alex concluded.

**********
The Sheriff’s worse fears were realized, and Jesse was released on bail. The first place he staggered to was the hospital. He was triaged in the waiting room and bought into one of the more private exam rooms. The charge nurse went in to interview him.

Jesse cut right through the questions, “I don’t need a rape kit, I don’t need to talk to an officer. This happened in jail and the guards watched. Now just do something about it, and bring me a couple of those candy striper nurses to nibble on while you’re working.”

The charge nurse left the room and looked for someone special for Jesse. “Mildred, are you busy?”

What looked like a white clad storm trooper on steroids stomped out of the supply room. “Nothing that can’t wait a couple of minutes. What do you need honey?” she said in her unique gravely voice.

“Well, we have a self admitted baby raper in exam four, he got what was coming to him in prison, and now his butt hurts.”

Mildred scratched the mole on her chin, parting the hair growing there, as she thought of the evil desires this pervert brought into her hospital. Her breath growled in the back of her throat.

“He actually expects me to bring him a couple of candy stripers while he is waiting.”

Incidentally, Mildred was in charge of the candy striper program at the hospital. “This defiler of virgins wants my candy stripers?” Mildred’s blood pressure spiked, causing the alcoholic blood vessels on her nose to bulge near the point of bursting.

“That’s what he said.”

Mildred threw her ham like arms forward and cracked her knuckles. The sound was like gunshots rebounding through the center. “Let me at him.”

Jesse saw Mildred waddle into the room and screamed in terror. He tried to leap from the table, but Mildred was ready for that. She had a lot of experience with men running off as they sobered up or if the lights were turned on unexpectedly. She slammed a fist down onto the small of his back, pinning him to the gurney face down. “Mr. Ramirez, I understand you have a problem with your ass.” She quickly tied his arms to the gurney with medical tape. “We can’t have you moving during the procedure, can we?” She asked. Mildred managed to cover almost all of Jesse’s hairy forearms with the incredibly sticky tape.

“What are you going to do to me?” Jesse asked fearfully.

“We’re going to open you up, take a look, and give you some medication,” Mildred reassured him. “Nothing to worry about.”

“Well, let’s get on with it. The ladies are waiting.”

‘Yea, you’re going to keep them waiting after I pump you full of saltpeter,’ Mildred thought. “Okay, let’s see what’s going on in there.” She went to the refrigerator where they kept the penicillin and gamma globulin, and reached into the back where they kept the speculums. Due to her advanced age and poor eyesight, she reached past the small sized one, which was equipped with small fingers and would have been suitable for Jesse. She also reached past the normal sized specula with it’s small spoons that would be used for most women. Instead Mildred took the ‘bag lady’ model, which can only be described as having several small shovels attached. “Here, you’re going to need this,” she said as she shoved a bite-stick into Jesse’s mouth.

“Huh?” Jesse managed to ask.

Mildred wound up like a baseball pitcher and shoved the specula deep into Jesse’s bowel. She then reached for a Black-and-Decker Drill-Driver and cranked the offending instrument to it’s widest setting.

Jesse let loose with a muffled scream and practically bit the bite-stick in half.

“Oh! Sorry about that,” Mildred explained unapologetically. “I forgot the lubricant. That might help some.”

Although nothing would help at this point, Jesse’s innards being stuck to the frozen stainless steel, Mildred reached for the K-Y jelly. Once again her advanced age and failing eyesight failed her. She missed the K-Y and grabbed a tube of Ben-Gay instead. She gave the tube a mighty squeeze and pumped the entire contents into Jesse’s gut.

Jesse’s face displayed a curious mixture of pleasure and pain as the icy hot sensation flowed through his body.

The doctor met Mildred as he came through the door into the exam room. “How’s the patients rectum?”

“Yes Doctor, I wrecked him.”

**********
That evening, Charles was sitting at the kitchen table enjoying a cup of coffee while reading the sports page. From where he was sitting he was able to see Alex and Isabel sitting on the couch. They were watching the evening news, but seemed more interested in teasing each other. All that changed when Jeopardy came on. Charles grinned as he saw that while they settled down and started answering the questions, Isabel still managed to rest her head on Alex’s shoulder as he wrapped his arm around her. Charles soon dropped the sports page and paid attention to the young couple. Alex was kicking ass, but Isabel was answering every single question correctly.

During the commercial, Charles picked up a pen, and made a list. While the two teens breezed through Double Jeopardy, he kept score. At the end of the round, he was amazed to find that Isabel had made only one mistake. Her score for just the second round was over thirty four thousand dollars.

Both teens groaned when the Final Jeopardy category was announced, sports greats. “I’m not even trying that,” Alex announced.

“What are you looking at me for?” Isabel asked. “I’m no good at sports.”

“Well at least you have the memory thing going for you.”

“I can’t remember something I’ve never exposed myself to.” She turned to Charles, “Is everyone in for the night Mr. Whitman?”

“Well, Gloria will be back from her meeting in a little bit, but yea, everyone’s in.”

“PJ’s,” Isabel announced. She reached over and slapped Alex on the shoulder. “Come on, time to change. The second Jeopardy show is on in five minutes, and you already owe me for getting your ass whipped during the first show.”

They both went upstairs to change.

“I don’t know why I even try to beat you, it’s impossible.”

“Sweetie, this isn’t a competition.”

“Izzy, I’m not complaining, I’m just teasing you. I know I’m good at this, and I know that I can’t beat your memory.”

Alex finished changing and turned to see Isabel walk into his room. She walked up to him and tenderly placed her hand over his heart.

“Do you realize how special you are?” “You’re the only person on the face of the planet that can speak to me like this. No one else can do this. Not my family, not Max, not Liz, just you.”

“Wow, I never thought of it that way,”

Charles watched as they came back downstairs, both dressed in shorts and tanks. From where he was sitting he thought Isabel had two tops on. Having raised only boys, he didn’t realize that the black top under her red one was actually a sports bra. Alex settled himself on the couch while Isabel pushed the ottoman in front of him. She sat down and pulled his legs onto her lap so he was sitting Indian style with his legs wrapped around her. Charles started to get concerned until he saw Isabel hand Alex a hairbrush.

“Get working Sweetie. You lose, you brush.”

Alex used one hand to sweep her hair back and his other to brush it. They watched as Alex Trebek read the first question. “The State of Maine,” they replied together.

Charles shook his head in amazement. ‘That’s one lucky guy, when I was a kid and lost a game I had to mow the lawn.’ He returned to his paper, only half paying attention to the couple. When the show went to commercial, they quieted down. He just happened to glance at them as he was turning the page. To his amazement, he saw Isabel leap from the ottoman, knocking the hairbrush flying.

Isabel turned and looked at Alex for a moment, and then noticing that Charles was watching her, she reached out and slapped Alex’s face. Then she ran up the stairs.

Charles stood, throwing the paper on the floor. He charged into the living room. “Alex, what the hell did you do?”

Alex looked confused, “Huh?”

“What did you do to Isabel?”

“Nothing Pops.”

“Nothing my ass. Damn it, I raised you better that that. I expect, no, I demand that you treat women with respect. You practically owe that girl your life for crying out loud, and that’s how you treat her?”

“Pops, I didn’t do anything wrong,,,”

“You get to your room and stay there, why I have half a mind to kick your ass,,,”

Alex got out of the living room while the getting was good.

An hour later Gloria walked in from the garage and looked around. “Where are the kids?”

“Isabel went upstairs and ‘your son’ is restricted to his room until he turns twenty-one.”

Gloria looked surprised. “What happened?”

“I don’t know what happened. Alex did something to somehow offend Isabel. She slapped him and then ran upstairs.”

“Did he say something to her? Something must have happened between the two of them. Didn’t you ask what?”

I don’t need to know what happened. I raised him to be a gentleman, and he wasn’t.”

“How do you know that? Did you talk to Isabel?”

“I’m not talking to her, that’s your job.”

“Charles Emerson Whitman!”

“Now wait a minute, what did I do?”

“Well, apparently you didn’t do anything. How are you going to fix things between them if you don’t know what happened?”

“How did I end up in the dog house?”

“You don’t need to know why, you just need to know that you did.” Gloria shook her head and turned towards the stairs muttering, “I have to do everything myself.”

“Isabel?” Gloria asked as she slowly entered her room.

“Oh! Hi Gloria,” Isabel said as she stood.

“Isabel, do you want to tell me anything about what happened between you and Alex tonight?” She asked with concern in her voice.

A smile crept over Isabel’s face. “It’s kind of personal,,,”

“You’re smiling, Alex didn’t hurt you?” Gloria asked, confused.

“Of course not! Alex couldn’t hurt me,,,” Isabel’s eyes opened wide as she realized what happened. She continued softly, “Alex didn’t hurt me, he told me that he loved me.”

“And you slapped him?”

“Well, his father was sitting right there watching us, so I couldn’t react the I wanted to do.” Isabel paused to gather her thoughts, “I mean he has said that he loves me in red, or he loves dancing with me, or that he loves my perfume. At the prom he promised to love me forever. But this was the first time he said the three magic words.” Isabel looked Gloria in the eyes. “It’s private. Why did he say that in front of an audience? I guess I was frustrated.”

Gloria laughed. “Well, I suspect you had better go explain yourself to Alex. He’s in his room confined to bread and water by his father.”

Isabel’s eyes opened wide, “Oh no, I’ve got to explain,,,”

“I’ll take care of his father. You go get Alex, I’ll give you fifteen minutes privacy in the back yard to talk to him. And Isabel, I remember how I felt when my boyfriend told me he loved me. It’s safe to assume Charles may be watching the two of you out the back window.” Gloria placed her arm over the younger woman’s shoulder, walking her out into the hallway. “Charles really cares about you, he doesn’t want to see anyone hurt you.”

Isabel slowly approached Alex, who was lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling. She watched as he noticed her and stood, looking at her nervously.

“Isabel, whatever I did,,,”

Isabel cut him off with a finger on his lips. “You didn’t do anything wrong, you just caught me by surprise.” She took him by the hand and led him downstairs.

“Izzy, I’m kind of grounded,,,”

“I took care of it. I want to talk to you, privately.” They stayed silent until they got out into the yard.

“Isabel, I really mean it,,,”

Isabel watched as he struggled to find words. She felt a surge of love for this man who would apologize for something he didn’t do, just to make her feel better. “Hey Sweetie, you don’t have to say anything.”

“Yes I do, I just,,, Can I talk to my best friend?”

“Isabel looked at him with tenderness in her eyes. “Of course you can,,, No, Alex. We did that once before to get us through a tough spot. We can’t do that again. You can talk to me. Not your best friend. Not your girlfriend. Me, Isabel.”

“Well, I mean,,, if I didn’t do anything wrong,,, why did you? You scare me sometimes.”

Isabel felt a chill run through her heart. “Scare you, because I’m,, an,,,”

“Oh no! Nothing like that! I love you and everything that you are,,,”

Isabel’s heart soared.

“Your Antarian half, and your super human side. I was attracted to you because you’re beautiful, but I fell in love with you because of your confidence, humor, intelligence,,,”

“Is that all?”

“Well, there’s your warmth whenever I’m close to you,,, and,,, well,,, you are incredibly sexy.”

“You think I’m sexy?”

“Oh God! Izzy. When you tease me? It’s all I can do to stay in control. Do you remember the time I dressed at your house and I had to go without shorts? Later I had your panties in my pocket so we would be even?”

Isabel smiled, remembering that afternoon. “I was so nervous. I was afraid a gust of wind would lift my skirt and show everyone my secret.”

Isabel couldn’t see that Alex had started to blush, but she could feel his heart race. “I wished for that gust of wind, just so I could get a little peek,,,”

“Sweetie, why didn’t you just look? I wouldn’t have stopped you, why didn’t you ask?”

“See? That’s what I mean. You are so confident about us, that we’re doing the right thing. I envy your ability to see the future. Us in Boston, our marrying, our children. I’m still trying to come to grips with the fact that the girl of my dreams agreed to go on a date with me.”

“Oh Sweetie,” Isabel rested her head on his chest. “I don’t see the future. All I know is that I have never been happy in my life unless you are in it. Every time I pushed you away I felt empty inside, and every time you came back to me it was like I was born again.” Isabel leaned back to look him in the eyes. “You haven’t figured it out yet, have you?”

“Figured out what?”

“Why we, Max, Michael, and myself are here, now.”

“Because it’s your destiny.”

“No sweetie, it’s ours. Think about it. Max and Liz were first. They are soul mates, meant to be together. Michael and Maria were next. The only time they are more miserable than when they’re together is when they’re apart. Kyle and Tess seemed to get along, but something wasn’t quite right. Now look at him with Ava. They haven’t been apart for a moment since Liz brought her over to his house. Now look at us.”

“So you’re saying this is bigger than the both of us?”

“I’m saying that you are my destiny, and nothing will keep me from it.”

The porch light flicked on and off twice.

“Well, time’s up,” Isabel sighed.

“Before we go in I want to try something again.”

Isabel looked down and smirked. “Sure you’re not afraid?” she added, biting her lower lip.

“Oh! I’m very afraid,” he said softly. “You’re going to have to stay close to me and protect me.” Alex stepped closer to her, took her face in his hands, looked deep into her eyes and said, “I,,, Love,,, You.”

This time, Isabel didn’t slap him.

As they passed through the kitchen Alex saw his father sitting at the table. Alex looked at Isabel, “I’ll be upstairs in a minute.”

“Okay Sweetie, love you.”

Alex got a glass of water and sat opposite his dad. “Everything okay Pops?”

“I’m sorry son, I should have asked before I reacted.”

“That’s okay Pops, I don’t know what I would have told you.”

“So let me get this straight. You did the right thing, got whacked, and can’t figure out what happened?”

Alex didn’t want to share his conversation with Isabel, so he took the easy out. “Yea Pops.”

Charles raised his glass for a toast. “Congratulations Son, for tonight you are a man. It doesn’t get any easier, but don’t fight it. You’ll never be happier.” They downed their water. “Now you better get upstairs. I’m willing to bet that Isabel is waiting for you to tuck her in.”

**********
Friday morning, Alex and Isabel stopped in the Crashdown for breakfast, finding most of the gang there. “Sweetie,” Isabel said, “You sit down, I need to talk to Liz a moment, Okay?”

Receiving a nod, she approached her brown haired friend. “Can I talk to you in the back, privately?”

Liz looked around, “Ahhmm sure, Maria has things under control.” They went into the locker room and Isabel closed the door. This surprised Liz, because as Alex had found out in the past, no one closes the door even when changing. She realized this was serious. “Isabel?” She asked softly.

“I need your help with something. With Tess gone, I’m the only woman of my kind left. Ava’s close, but the other pod was different.”

“What do you want from me?” Liz asked.

“What you do best, research. I can’t go to a doctor, the only one I can turn to is you. Who am I? How do I work? Can Alex and I have children? How about birth control, and will the pill work on me? I don’t want us to have to spend the rest of our life wearing a condom.”

Liz was feeling overwhelmed. “I don’t know Isabel, I’ll do what I can but I can’t promise anything.”

“That’s all I can ask Liz.” Isabel said, relieved.

“Okay, let me think about this, you and I are top of the class in A.P. biology, we should be able to do this, and we can call on Alex if necessary.”

“Yea, Alex, only if we need to,” Isabel said, concerned.

“Don’t worry Isabel,” Liz said, reassuring. “I realize this is something we’ll keep to ourselves, but Alex knows more about girls than you do. He was with Maria when she got her period, and he’s had to go to the pharmacy and pick up my pills when I was sick one time.”

“You’re on the pill?” Isabel asked amazed.

“Yea, I have been for four years. It’s how I keep my anemia under control. Let’s not tell Max that one.”

“Isabel smiled for the first time since the conversation started. “I’ll keep your secret if you’ll keep mine.”

“I’ll need to start a list. We’ll figure this out.”

**********
As Isabel and Liz returned to the front, Kyle ran into the Crashdown, his excitement visible to everyone. “Guess what? I won! I won Metallica tickets!”

“On KROZ? Awesome!” Michael exclaimed, coming out of the kitchen. “How many did you get?”

“That’s the part that sucks, I only got four.”

“Ouch,” Max said. “Who you going to take?”

“Well, that’s the thing I’m counting on, not everyone’s into metal music. I’m guessing this is a guys road trip.”

Ava reached over and smacked him on the shoulder.

“Tess, what the hell was that for?” Kyle asked, rubbing his shoulder. “That hurt!”

“That’s for thinking only guys like metal music. How many of you were at Woodstock?”

“You were at Woodstock?” Liz exclaimed. “How was it?”

“It was a blast until Rath got busted for boosting a six dollar bottle of warm Mountain Dew. Lonnie started a bunch of fires as a distraction so he could get away.”

“That was Rath and Lonnie?” Michael was upset. “Man they ruined it for all of us. They’ll never do another one, not after that mess.”

“Naw,” Max answered. “As long as kids have money and credit cards they will have concerts. Burning a concession stand just becomes a cost of doing business.”

Ava interrupted, “So back to the road trip, who’s going?”

Alex made himself heard. “Hey Kyle, Metal’s not really my thing, why don’t you take Tess instead of me.”

Ava squealed and reached into the booth to hug Alex. “Thank- you.”

The four concert goers moved to another booth to make plans, leaving Alex and Isabel with Liz and Maria.

Alex shivered and reached under the table. “Izzy, where’s your hand?”

She realized that she had crossed her arms over her chest, and reached down taking his hand.

“That really freaked me out. I knew it was Ava, but when she reached for me all I could think about was Tess.”

“Me too. I know Ava has a part to play, but when she reached for you I almost panicked.”

“Yea, she just looks too real.”

“She is real Sweetie. She’s an Alien. That’s part of the baggage I bring with me.”

“As long as you’re in my life, I’ll carry those bags willingly. I love you, and that’s who you are.”

“This sucks.” Maria exclaimed.

“What’s wrong?” Liz asked.

“They’re going to the concert, the two of you keep talking about going to Boston, while Liz and I are stuck here.”

Liz looked at Maria, “Road trip.”

“Hey, don’t leave us out!” Isabel exclaimed. “With everything that’s been going on lately, I’m ready to get away too.”

“Okay,” Alex went into planning mode. “We have been talking about going to Balmorhea State Park for a couple of summers now.”

“Yea,” Maria agreed. “We could spend a couple of days camping, playing in the pool, and just hanging out.”

“Where is this place?” Isabel asked. “I’ve never heard of it.”

“It’s in Texas, about two hours south of Midland.” Maria explained. “It’s famous for having a gigantic pool.”

“Now wait a minute,” Isabel didn’t sound too happy. “They are going to a concert, and we are going to drive five hours to sit by a pool? Besides chlorine turns my hair green.”

The three friends looked at her and broke out laughing.

Isabel realized what she had said, and her face clouded over. “Okay, the first one who cracks an alien joke wakes up bald tomorrow.”

“No, it’s not like that,” Liz explained. “There’s a huge spring feeding millions of gallons of water into it. The water is totally fresh. It doesn’t need to be treated.”

“Wow!” Isabel answered. “I’ve never seen that much water.”

“So,” Alex concluded, “When are we going?”

“Sweetie,” Isabel said tenderly, placing her hand over his heart. “That’s so nice, thinking you have a say in what we’re going to do,” as she started to softly laugh. Turning, “So ladies, when are we going to let Alex take us on this road trip?”

**********
That evening, Gloria opened the door, inviting Diane and Philip into her house. Charles came out from the kitchen and greeted them as well. “Thank you for coming over and joining us.”

“Well,” answered Philip, “It’s not every day that the parents get invited out by their teenagers.”

“I know what you mean,” Gloria answered. “If I weren’t so close to the two of them, I probably would have thought the worst.”

Charles felt a little uncomfortable with their visitors, as he had never had the chance to get to know them. “Come in, make yourselves comfortable. We don’t have to leave for the restaurant for another hour, the kids wanted us to have some time to get to know each other first.”

Gloria led Diane into the kitchen. “Can I offer you a cup of tea?”

“I’d like that, thank you. And I can’t thank you enough for putting Isabel up. I hope she isn’t being too much trouble.”

“Trouble? She’s no trouble at all. In fact Charles is going to be as upset as Alex will be when it’s time for her to go home. Come on upstairs, you should see them getting ready.”

The two women snuck down the hallway until they could peek into Alex’s room.

Alex was sitting at his computer. He was freshly showered and wearing a pair of khakis, but he was still bare footed and shirtless. Isabel came out of his bathroom wearing a white satin camisole and tap pants set. “Sweetie, I need help with this ear ring. I can’t seem to find the hole.” She knelt next to him as he turned and tenderly put her earring in. “Oh no, Sweetie, you’re not wearing those are you?”

“I was planning to,,,”

“I don’t think so Sweetie. I’m wearing my white linen suit, you’re going to have to go dark. Besides, these are our parents. Be respectful, wear a suit.” She kissed him, taking any sting out of her words.

Gloria watched as Diane stifled a giggle.

“Can you take a look at this? The program’s running fine but I don’t know if I’m setting the business up right.

“You’re right,” she said looking at the computer. “You need to set up A.R. (accounts receivables) as a consulting business, utilizing T. and M. (time and materials) billing. What you have here is a standard resale billing for a retail operation.” She stood, and while wrapping one arm around his shoulder, leaned on him. She reached for the mouse with her other hand. “Here watch.”

Alex watched as she updated the configuration that he had been working on. When she finished she kissed him on the cheek.

“Okay Izzy, what do we do now?”

“Well, you’re at a good place to save and back-up, so you should do that now. And as much as I like you this way,” she leaned down and gave him a gentle bite on his neck, “We should get dressed and join our guests downstairs.”

Gloria and Diane snuck away before they were noticed. “I tell you Gloria, that girl is going to give him a heart attack,” Diane lectured.

“Maybe so,” Gloria replied with a laugh. “But I bet the undertaker will never be able to wipe the smile off his face.”

Continued next

Posted: **Mon Aug 08, 2005 10:36 am**

Dinner had been great. Good food with a lot of small talk. Both sets of parents enjoyed watching the young couple together. All of that changed now that coffee had been served. Talk about the new company wasn’t going so well.

“Am I the only one who feels this way?” Looking to the other adults for support. You’re too young to be thinking of starting a new company. Most new businesses fail during the first five years, and the leading cause of failure is a lack of capitalization.”

“Daddy, you’re way off base here, and I resent your implications. You have our business model, you have our business plan. Where do you see capitalization expenses? Where do you see a large amount of fixed cost? You want a five year window? I’ll give you one: High School and College. Our major expenses are going to be the same whether we own a company or not.”

“I don’t know why I’m not having this conversation with Alex anyways? It’s his company,” Philip said, looking for a softer target.

Isabel snapped back, losing her patience, “If you want to discuss product, if you have a question about software, or if you need to discuss a new project, talk to Alex. If you have a question about the business, the front office or customer relations you come to me.”

Isabel softened her voice. “Daddy, Alex is brilliant, he doesn’t need this company, he doesn’t need me,,,”

“I need you more than the air I breathe,,,” Alex interrupted.

“Alex wrote a program that the Cheese Factory wants to buy. In order for him to do the deal he needs the legitimacy of having his own company. We’re not going to let this take over our lives, the entire company is just a matter of convenience, a legal billing address.”

Diane had heard enough, “I feel a need to powder my nose, would you all please excuse me?”

In the time honored tradition of women everywhere Gloria reached for her purse, but she was surprised to hear, “Philip, would you please accompany me?”

Philip was surprised, but he recognized a command when he heard one. He took the napkin from his lap, “Ahhmm, sure.”

When Diane reached the corridor outside the power room she let Philip have it. “What in the name of God are you thinking!?” she demanded as she squared off, facing him.

“I,,,” he faltered, not expecting such a vehement attack quite so quickly.

“I don’t care what you’re thinking. I am struggling, tooth and nail, to hold my family together and you go and pull a stunt like that? I simply won’t allow it.”

“I,,, err,,,”

“Need I remind you that the last two attempts at a conversation with Max have blown up in your face, or the fact that Isabel is living with Gloria? I need you working with me, not against me.”

“I,,, well,,,”

“Isabel’s practically an adult. She’s going to be going to college with Alex on the other side of the country in a year, with or without our involvement. The kids are offering both you and Charles an incredible opportunity to stay involved in their adult life, and you’re throwing it away?”

“I,,, no,,,”

“Now you’re going to go out there and get with the program and support your daughter. Do we understand each other?”

“Yes Dear,,,”

“Good, now you wait for me a moment and think about what you’re going to say.” Diane went into the power room to calm down and splash some water on her face.

When they returned to the table Philip was the first to speak. “Well it seems like I’ve been outvoted, so,,,”

“Daddy,,,” Isabel interrupted.

“Now I know where she gets it from,” Philip muttered.

“I don’t want you to work with us because you think you have to, we want you to help because you think it is the right thing to do.”

“I do Iz, I still think you’re young, and I don’t want you to stop being my little girl,,,”

“I’m always going to be your little girl, and we want to be able to turn to you for help and advice, if you let us,” Isabel continued.

Philip recognized a threat when he heard one. Diane had explained the reason that Isabel was staying at the Whitman’s. He also realized that if Isabel thought that she or Alex were threatened, he would lose her. He decided that it would be much better working with the young couple than against them. “Why don’t we meet at my office Monday morning and we’ll get this done.”

“We have an appointment at the travel agency on Monday morning,” Diane responded.

“Daddy, I’m sure Mr. Whitman can’t get out of work on such short notice,” Isabel rebutted. “How about 6:00 at our house Monday evening. Mom always says she doesn’t get enough company and we can make dinner. Besides, all of the paper will be ready by then, all we’ll have to do is discuss any remaining questions and sign.”

Alex smiled at the thought of one of Diane’s home cooked meals.

“What are you smirking about?” Isabel teased. “You’re on potato duty.”

“How does that always happen to me?” Alex asked mystified.

Charles and Philip looked at each other and laughed. “Get used to it son,” Charles added.

“We need to set an appointment at the cheese factory,” Alex said, returning to the subject at hand. “I’ll feel a lot more comfortable with a signed contract in place.”

“You know Alex,” Charles asked, “You’ll be able to legally sign your own contract next week, I don’t know why you want me to be there?”

“I need you there Pops.” He reached for Isabel’s hand. “Things are changing for us so fast,,,”

“And we don’t want to mess things up.” Isabel finished.

**********
Alex and Isabel left for Albuquerque at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning. They made good time and were at the computer show before eleven. Alex immediately looked for his workstation vendor, finding him in the back corner of the auditorium.

“Rich, how are you?” asked Alex, shaking his hand.

“I’ll tell you how I am, I’m broke.”

“Rich, Rich,” Alex sighed, shaking his head. “You’re the biggest reseller of equipment in the state. You’re making money hand over fist.”

“I found the Sun Blade workstation you asked for, and at the price you’re willing to pay. I’m telling you, every time I talk to you I lose money.”

“Well, speaking of money, I want to introduce my business partner. This is Isabel Evans. She’s the one holding the purse strings.”

“I have a certified check, as you requested,” Isabel smiled. “It’s for the amount agreed to. Now this includes a 90 day warranty and a legal copy of Solaris 10.0, correct?” Isabel asked sweetly.

“It’s Isabel, correct?” Seeing Isabel nod he continued, “Miss Isabel, I don’t know what this ruffian has told you about me, but I run a respectable company. And as a first time customer, I am going to include a free memory upgrade to one giga-byte. I’m sure we’ll be doing a lot of business in the future. Now, let me see, I know I have a certificate of authenticity for the Solaris operating system here somewhere. Ahh here it is, see that? I misplaced it, that’s all.”

“Why thank you Rich,” Isabel said as she slipped the certificate into her purse before it was ‘misplaced’ again.

“Now Alex, I’m curious,” Rich asked. “Why do you need this powerful a workstation?”

“I’m working on a special project. I need a lot of raw number crunching power. The only software that I could find to do the job will only run in the Sun environment. They don’t even make a Win-Tel (Windows/Intel) version. I had to special order the package through Neil.”

“Well you’re in luck, Neil is just across the aisle. When we finish here you can go get your software, then I’ll have my boy wheel the server out to your car. Now I need you to take note of the bill of sale. This is export controlled technology. Whatever you do with the equipment, it can’t leave the country.”

“I don’t have a problem with that, I’m probably going to run it into the ground anyways.”

Alex finished with Rich and led Isabel across the aisle and introduced her to Neil.

“Here it is, just what you asked for,” Neil handed him the software.

“Ouch,” Alex exclaimed, looking at the price tag.

“Yea,” Neil responded. “No surplus or overstock software this time. That’s a cutting edge program, and a limited run at that. I’m splitting my dealer’s discount with you, but it’s still expensive.”

“Sweetie,” Isabel asked, “Do you really need all of this?”

“Well Izzy,” Alex sighed. “This business is going to last us the rest of our lives. It’s what I’m going to go to school for. We need to do it right the first time. I just hope I get the check from the cheese factory before my father sees what I did to my college fund.”

Isabel took out another certified check, and handed it to Neil.

“Okay, Alex,” Neil continued. “I need to explain something to you. This software requires end user certification. You can not copy it, sell it, give it away, or take it out of the country.”

“Yea, Rich just explained about that when I bought the Blade workstation.”

“No, no! Don’t get them confused. The server is export controlled. That level of restriction is basically on the honor system unless you get caught. This is much stricter. I am going to have to report this transaction to the U.S. Dept of Commerce. You are going to be registered with them as owning this software. You are going to have to read and honor the terms of the end user certificate, and if you violate it, you get ten years in jail and a ten thousand dollar fine.”

“Sweetie,” Isabel interrupted, “Are you sure you want to do this?”

“Izzy, your Pentium Three laptop and the copy of Windows XP Home that I installed on it are both export controlled. Most people never read the license. Don’t let the legal stuff scare you.”

They finished up with Neil, and swung by Rich’s table. With the workstation safely in tow, they headed for the car. “Where to now?” Alex asked.

“The mall,” Isabel replied teasingly.

Alex could only groan.

**********
“Okay, where to first?” Alex asked, hoping to get this over with quickly.

“First you’re going to feed me,” Isabel teased.

“The food court is great here,” Alex exclaimed. “We can get a chili-dog at foot long, and a chocolate malt at Johnny Rockets.”

“Alex,” Isabel sighed, leaning in close to him so their foreheads touched. “Do I need to go back into Ice Princess mode for you to realize that I’m not a food court kind of girl?”

Alex thought a moment, “There’s an Applebee’s?”

“Applebee’s will do fine.”

After lunch Isabel took a special delight in teasing Alex as she dragged him through the mall. She took her time selecting a pair of shoes that she just couldn’t live without, and tried on a dozen sweaters before finding the perfect lightweight pink one.

Alex struggled under the load of packages, “Are we done now? I don’t think any of the stores have anything left.”

“Oh stop complaining Sweetie,” Isabel commanded with affection in her voice. “I haven’t spent anywhere near as much money as you did this morning.”

“What I spent?” Alex sputtered. “That’s for work. That’s for our future.”

“And in this future, would you have me run around naked in the cold and the rain?”

Alex thought about Isabel running around naked, and a big grin broke on his face, “Yea.”

“Good, then you won’t mind our last stop.”

Alex looked at the wood and glass storefront. “Oh no.” He looked at the intricate carved and gilded store name. “I’m not going in there.” He looked at the displays in the window and smiled at her confidently. “It's not gonna happen, Isabel.”

“Right...right...right. Thought I'd give it a shot.” She laughed and shook her head as she reached for his hand. “Why don’t you save us both a lot of time and just come in with me.”

Alex decided to grin and bare it as they entered Victoria’s Secret.

Rhonda had been enjoying a quiet day at work. She was able to complete all of her chores quickly and now had plenty of time to spend with her customers. This was what she enjoyed most about her new job managing the Victoria’s Secret shop, the customers. She watched as a young couple stood outside. The young woman was tall and beautiful with thick blond hair down to her shoulders. Rhonda noticed that her boyfriend was tall enough so that the woman could still wear heels if she wanted to when she was out with him. She smiled to herself as the young woman dragged her boyfriend into the store. She allowed them to look around a bit, which was her secret to good customer service, attentive yet not pushy.

She continued her appraisal of the young woman. ‘ Good quality clothing, excellent taste, and perfect fit’. She also recognized that ‘just a touch of make-up’ look that took so much effort to perfect. ‘He is a new boyfriend, although judging by their comfort together, I bet they have known each other for a long time. His clothing screams department store, although it looks like he made some effort to dress nicely for her. I’m sure that will change as she slowly starts to influence his buying habits.’

Isabel watched as the clerk approached. Auburn hair, cut short in the latest style. This seasons ‘Donna Karen’ she thought, pretty upscale for Albuquerque. But what impressed Isabel the most were the woman’s eyes. Behind those incredible blue eyes, Isabel saw a native intelligence that was increasingly rare to find. ‘My mistake, she runs the place.’

“Welcome to Victoria’s Secret. My name is Rhonda.” She turned towards Isabel, “Please let me know if I can be of any assistance.” Turning towards Alex, “Is this your first time here? Maybe I can help you find something?”

“How did she know this was my first time here?” Alex mumbled.

The women looked at each other smiling. “You’re blushing,” Isabel said.

“It’s a dead give away,” Rhonda agreed. Noticing that the young woman was biting her lip and holding back as if she wanted to say something, Ronda turned towards Alex, “Why don’t you look around and see if there is anything you like?”

“Pick out something for me to sleep in Sweetie,” Isabel added.

As Alex walked away, he watched Isabel talk and Rhonda nod in understanding. The two women went in separate directions. After spending several minutes selecting a special request, Rhonda returned to check up on Alex. “Have you found anything you like?”

“Maybe.” He held up a shortie pajama set. “She has one like this in red, so I thought she might like this.”

Rhonda looked at Alex’s selection with a critical eye. “Sapphire blue would look good with her coloring, but this is about the most conservative item of sleepwear we carry. Don’t you want something a little more,,,”

“It doesn’t matter what I like, I’ll probably never see her in it anyway. I’m much more concerned that she likes it. This looks beautiful and comfortable, she loves satin, and she will be able to wear it around her house without being embarrassed.”

“Okay, let me get this in her size and we’ll go back to the dressing room.”

“We’ll,,, what?”

“She’s going to want to try this on before you buy it for her. She has picked out a couple of other garments to try on as well.”

“Ahhmm, okay.” Alex’s blush was back in full force.

“Can I offer you a word of advice?”

“Sure.”

“When it’s time to check out, you pay for this. I’m sure she will protest. She doesn’t look like someone who expects people to buy things for her.”

“She isn’t,” Alex agreed, confused.

“You insist. I guarantee you, nothing makes a girl happier than to receive something intimate from her boyfriend.”

Rhonda led Alex over to the outside of the dressing room, where Isabel was waiting.”

“Let me know if I can do anything,” Rhonda offered, leaving the young couple.

“Come on Sweetie, I’ve got a couple of things to try on.”

“I’m not going in there with you,” Alex exclaimed, his face aghast.

“Of course you’re coming in with me. You don’t think I’m going to walk out into the store wearing a nightie so you can see it, do you?” Seeing the continued blush on Alex’s face she calmed him. “Don’t worry Sweetie, there’s an anteroom outside the changing room, you won’t have to see me nekkid unless you want to,” she teased. ‘Although I’m going to get pretty close,’ she thought to herself.

Isabel tried on the PJ’s first. They quickly agreed that she needed to add them to her collection.

The second ‘outfit’ that Isabel tried on was a bra and panty set. She stepped from behind the curtain, “What do you think?”

Alex was speechless. While the set was also on the conservative side, the bra was a deep plunging style revealing a lot of cleavage, a commodity that Isabel had in abundance. “Ahhmm, isn’t this a bit of a departure for you?”

“Very observant Sweetie. Most of the clothing I own is either bare shouldered with a straight neckline, or with a scooped neckline. I don’t need a plunge front bra with those.”

Alex said a silent prayer of thanks that his years of friendship with Liz and Maria had prepared him for this conversation. While nothing could have prepared him for standing next to his dream girl in a bra and panty, at least he knew what a scooped neckline was.

Isabel pulled on a v-necked cardigan in a rich camel color. The sweater had a button front, and Isabel left the top button undone. “I definitely need this bra to wear this top.” She moved around and bent over, testing the fit of both garments. “Anything show that shouldn’t?”

“Ahhmm,,, what?”

Isabel smiled at his discomfort, knowing that he was exploring undiscovered territory. “What could you see?”

“Well,,,” Alex started, trying to swallow. “I could see a little bit of the tops, a lot of the,,,” words failed him so he ran a finger down her cleavage, “middles, and I think I even saw some of the bottoms.”

“Did I stay decent?”

“Yea, you were okay.”

“So tell me, when you’re in the locker room, are you proud of your girlfriend’s rack?”

Alex put his arms over her shoulders and looked her in the eyes. “I am proud of everything you are, and everything you do. I thank God every day that I am lucky enough to have you in my life.”

Isabel reached up and kissed him, a brief kiss, appropriate for their surroundings. “You always know exactly what to say.”

“You don’t think I’m just saying that, do you?”

“No Sweetie,” Isabel felt a surge of,,, well she also felt a surge of affection for him. “I know how you feel. Hang on a moment, I have one more outfit to show you.” She returned to the changing room.

Alex could hear her changing, and he noticed that it was taking her longer than the last time. He decided to have a quick word with Fred. ‘Not now! Why do you keep embarrassing me like this. This isn’t about you, all she’s trying to do is find some undies that won’t show under her sweater. Now be good, I swear you have a mind of your own.’

“Sweetie?”

“Yea Izzy.”

“I picked out something to wear under the cream colored leather top I bought for when we go dancing, but you have to promise me that this time you will look but not touch.”

“Why’s that Izzy?”

“Because if you touch me I will attack you, and I don’t think my dad is going to be in the mood to bail us out of jail.” She stepped out from the changing room.

Alex’s jaw fell, he hadn’t so much as dreamed of the vision that he found in front of him. Isabel was wearing a sheer white negligee. The top had spaghetti straps, and while the garment was tightly fitted, the nearly transparent fabric was intended for show more than support.

“Do you like it?” Isabel asked.

Alex could not take his eyes off Isabel and could only nod yes. He raised his finger and pointed at a pink spot.

“Those are my nipples, Sweetie. Have you ever seen one before? Do you like them?”

Alex started to shake his head to the first question, but feared he would be misunderstood. He tore his eyes away from her breasts and looked her in the eyes. “Yes Izzy, you’re my first for everything.” He imagined that she was also wearing a new scent. He couldn’t place it, but it was driving him crazy. “You are more beautiful than I ever imagined.”

“How’s the rest of the fit?” she asked as she turned.

Alex looked down, getting a good look at her ass for the first time. He knew it was magnificent from furtive glances at her while she was wearing her famous leather pants, but nothing could compare to the real thing.

“There’s no elastic holding the legs in place, I had a hard time getting them to fit just right. Next time you could help me with them.”

Thinking of touching her was more than Alex could stand. He knew she would never allow that, would she?

Isabel turned forward again and whispered, “This is the only time I’ve regretted being blonde. I’m too fair for you to see.” Isabel had finally reached the limit of her nerve, and started to blush also. “Next time you look I won’t be wearing any panties.” Now as embarrassed as Alex was, she cast her eyes downward and bit her lip.

He returned his gaze to her nipples. “Do they hurt when they’re like that?”

Isabel looked down at herself. Her nipples had never been so hard in her life. “No they don’t hurt,,,” ‘They want attention,’ she thought. ‘Suck them into your mouth. Suck them hard until they swell even bigger. Grate them with your teeth, nibble them until I scream, then move on and make me scream again.’ Looking past her nipples she almost laughed.

She pointed at the tent in his pants. “Does that hurt when it’s like that?” she asked giggling.

“Awww,,,” Alex moaned, shifting from embarrassment to mortification. ‘She saw my erection.’ “That damned thing has a mind of it’s own. I’m going to hit it with a stick,,,”

“Don’t you dare!” Isabel exclaimed. “That’s the only one I’m ever going to get to play with and I don’t want you breaking him; besides, I think he likes me.”

They stopped talking and looked in each other’s eyes, but Isabel broke the moment. “I better get changed before we both get into trouble.”

Alex could only nod in agreement.

**********
The ride home was quiet and uneventful, Alex drove carefully while Isabel dozed besides him. As he came to the Roswell city limits, Alex noticed a Sheriff’s cruiser approaching in the opposite lane. The deputy driving the cruiser reached the edge of his jurisdiction and made a u-turn, pulling into traffic behind Alex. Moments later Alex’s stomach filled with acid as he saw the lights on the top of the cruiser start to strobe.

“Aww shit!” Alex exclaimed as he pulled to the side of the road.

Isabel awoke with a start. “What’s wrong Alex?”

“I don’t know, we’re getting stopped. I wasn’t speeding, and I know my plates are up to date. Damn!” he exclaimed again as he slammed his hand into the steering wheel. Alex looked into the rear view mirror and breathed a sigh of relief. “It’s Deputy Hanson, maybe it’s nothing. Maybe the Sheriff is looking for us.”

Deputy Hanson stopped to look at the back of the car before approaching closer. He carefully stopped opposite the driver’s side window on the back door and leaned down, forcing Alex to turn in his seat to look at him. “Afternoon Alex.” He reached and touched his hat, “Miss Isabel.” He turned his attention back to Alex. The reason I stopped you is that you have some damage to your tail light. It looks burned. Do you know anything about that?”

“Why no Deputy, I wasn’t aware of that,” Alex replied truthfully.

“Well, have you been camping lately? It looks like you may have gotten a little too close to a camp fire.” Hanson relaxed a little. “Tell you what, you’re a friend of Jim’s and all, you promise to get it fixed, and I won’t give you a ticket.”

“Thanks Deputy, I really didn’t know it was like that.” Alex breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t want to have to explain a ticket to his father.

“You really didn’t know? Why don’t you step out of the car and take a look at it.”

Alex opened the door and started to step out of the car.

Hanson looked down at the inside of the car, his eyes growing wide. He took a step backwards, away from the driver’s door and drew his weapon. “Let me see your hands!” He screamed, aiming his Colt Python at Alex’s head. “Out of the vehicle! Let me see your hands!”

Alex was scared to the point he could barely move. The last time he had seen a handgun he had almost died. He raised his hands, “I’m not doing anything! Please don’t do anything, I don’t want Isabel to get hurt.”

“Get out of the car! Keep your hands where I can see them!”

Isabel shouted from inside the car, “What’s wrong? Why are you doing this?”

Hansen shouted back, “Isabel, get out of the car and stand on the sidewalk!” He shoved Alex against the side of the car, holding the muzzle of his revolver right against the back of Alex’s neck.

“Isabel, don’t do anything! Please don’t move, he’s after me, not you!” Alex said to her, desperate to protect her.

“Don’t move!” Hanson hissed.

“Please, I’ll do anything! Put your gun away, I don’t want to see Isabel get hurt,” Alex pleaded.

Isabel stood on the sidewalk, slowly raising her hands as if in surrender.

Alex looked at Isabel and he could see the charge of power building up on her hand. “No Izzy, NO! He isn’t after you. I don’t care about myself, don’t do anything that will give yourself away!”

Hansen switched the weapon to his other hand as he patted Alex down, looking for weapons.

“Just turn around and walk away! Please Izzy! Just leave me, I don’t want to see you hurt!”

“I’m not doing anything!” Alex exclaimed to the excited deputy. “Just put the gun away! Isabel’s too close! I can’t let anything happen to her!”

‘Hanson has a gun to Alex’s head,’ Isabel thought, determination replacing fear. She willed an enormous charge to build in her body. ‘The next time he moves it away from Alex, Hanson has to die.’

TBC

Posted: **Sat Aug 27, 2005 9:25 am**

Gazer Gets the Girl
Chapter 10 - Hanson Days of Summer
by Stargazer_md

Disclaimer: The characters don’t belong to me. If they did, the show would still be on.
Some text is borrowed from the show, I didn’t treat it any worse than the original writers.
Summary: Izzy fights for her man.
Setting: End of S-2.
Category: Alex/Isabel with CC
Rating: PG-13

Where were we? Isabel and Alex return from Albuquerque with a car full of computer equipment and negligee’s. Everything is going great until Hanson sticks his nose into things.

**********
“Sheriff Valenti!” Isabel called out from her seat as she saw him enter the stationhouse lobby.

Jim immediately stopped and turned towards her. “Isabel, are you all right? Is Alex all right?” He asked, leading her to a convenient bench.

“Yea, we’re both pretty shaken up, but we’re alright. I have a connection open with him and we’re trying to keep each other calm.”

“Tell me what happened,” he asked softly.

Isabel repeated the story, as carefully as she could.

When Jim heard the end of the story, he asked, “What did Hanson arrest him for?”

“That’s the thing Sheriff, we don’t know. Hang on a moment.” Isabel paused momentarily, “Alex still doesn’t know why he’s here.” Another pause. “He hasn’t been charged,,, he hasn’t been read his rights.”

“Something’s not right here,” Jim replied. “I keep underestimating what a dumb ass he can be at times.”

“Sheriff,” Isabel offered. “If you want I can connect with you and you can see the whole thing.”

“Thanks for the offer Isabel,” Jim quickly answered, shaking his head. “We have dash cameras, and I would feel more comfortable looking at something I can explain and show to others. Where is Alex?”

Isabel paused, “He’s in holding two. Something else you need to know, my father’s here. I think he’s already going after Hanson.”

Jim entered the interview room, accompanied by Alex and Isabel. He looked at Philip, “Lets see if we can get to the bottom of this before we go any further.”

“So I guess you want us to leave?” Philip asked.

“Nope,” the Sheriff responded, running his hand through his hair. “We’ve never had anything to hide, but I would appreciate it if you let me do my job without interruption. Okay Deputy, report.”

“While on routine patrol in a marked unit,,,”

”Hanson,” Jim barked. He controlled his voice, “Just tell me what happened.”

“I stopped Alex because he had a defective taillight. It looked like the lens had been burned.”

“Did he cooperate? Did he resist you in any way?”

“Yes. Ahhmm, he did cooperate, although he expressed disbelief that there was anything wrong with the car. I asked him if wanted to look at the light, so I opened the door. That’s when I saw it.”

“What did you see?” Jim asked.

“He had a dangerous weapon in his car,” Hanson explained.

“Alex had a gun in his car?” Jim demanded, unbelieving.

“He had a Macintosh PR-24,” Hanson said, getting up and walking to his desk.

“He what?” Jim bellowed.

“He was in illegal possession of a police issue Macintosh PR-24,” Hanson said, holding the weapon up for everyone to see.

“You dragged him out of the car at gunpoint for possession of a baton?” Jim shouted, nearly at the point of losing it. “You could have killed someone! How much of a dumb ass can you be? There is no way that you are going to convince anyone that you were justified in drawing your weapon.”

“Well, where did he get the baton from? We get all of our equipment from Gall’s, and you can’t buy one without a purchase order on department stationary. He must’ve stolen it,” Hanson pleaded in his own defense.

Jim picked up the baton and showed it to Hanson. It was engraved: J VALENTI - ROSWELL. “I gave it to him. He’s taking the weaponless combat course that I’m teaching at the community college. And before you say anything else. There’s nothing anywhere that says I can’t give him a baton or that he can’t possess one. You’re right about Gall’s. They don’t sell to civilians, but that is a company policy. You can’t enforce company policy, especially at gunpoint.”

Hanson visibly deflated, as he realized the enormity of his mistake. “Why is he taking your course?”

“Jim had to think a moment, he couldn’t reveal the real reason, “Take one look at that young woman sitting there. Wouldn’t you want to know how to protect her?”

“Is that true?”

“Yes Izzy. After Copper Summit I talked to the Sheriff. I wanted to be able to do more; I didn’t want you to leave me behind the next time you are in danger. I don’t want you to think that you have to protect me. That’s why I took the E.M.T. course and that’s why I’m taking the weaponless combat course. It’s also why Kyle’s going to be teaching me to shoot better.”

“But why Sweetie, this isn’t you? You’ve always depended on your wits to get through life.”

“It’s who I am now… It’s time for me to grow up and face the things that you have been dealing with your entire life. You made me promise that I wouldn’t throw my life away cheaply. I agree with that. If I ever do have to fight to protect you, I want to have every advantage. I want to make sure that I’m going to come home to you.”

“Hanson, go home,” the Sheriff commanded. “You can consider yourself suspended, pending further action.

“What’s going to happen to me?” Hanson asked sounding defeated.

Jim ran his hair through his hair again. “That’s not up to me Deputy. Judge Lewis will probably look into this, and then the ultimate decision will be made by the city counsel.”

Hanson got up and walked to his desk, taking his jacket from the back of his chair. He looked at the Sheriff. “I’m going to lose my job?” he asked, unbelieving.

“Probably, and then these nice people are going to sue this department out of existence. After that, I’ll lose my job,” Jim added with a sigh. “Go home, you’ve done enough damage for one day.”

“Izzy, we can’t let this happen. We can’t let anyone hurt the Sheriff.”

They watched as Hanson walked out of the room. “I know, he’s been there for us. It’s time we watch out for him.”

“Sheriff, there’s not going to be any lawsuit.” Alex stated.

“Alex,” Philip stated. “Don’t say a word.”

“No, Jim is a friend of mine, and more importantly, he has watched out for us.”

“Hanson has to go,” Isabel added. “Then it ends.”

“We’ll talk,” Philip concluded.

**********
“It’s been a long day,” Isabel sighed. “I think I’m going to bed early.” She came over and pecked Gloria on the cheek. “Thanks for everything. Good night everyone.”

“Me too,” Alex added. “I’ll come up and tuck you in.” Alex hesitated before heading for the stairs.

Gloria picked up on this. “What’s wrong Alex?”

“I’m afraid after what happened today she’s going to have the mother of all nightmares. It tears me up inside to see her hurt like that.”

“I have to admit,” Charles added, “I’ve never heard of anyone having such a violent reaction to a dream.”

“It’s hard to explain Pops. Dreams mean so much to Isabel, both the good and the bad.”

“Well, you two be good up there,” Gloria prompted.

Alex smiled. “We will be Mom, I just want to take care of her.”

Isabel lay in bed waiting for Alex. “Are you going to kiss me good night?” she asked, biting her lower lip.

“Of course, I don’t know how much longer this arrangement will last, so I’m going to make the most of it while I can.” He leaned down and gently kissed her on the forehead. He smiled as he saw her pout in disappointment. “Sweet dreams my love. If you feel a nightmare coming on, just come and visit me. I’ll protect you, I promise.”

“I’ll be okay Sweetie, I have a plan. I’m going to have a good dream tonight.”

“Alright then,” Alex whispered as he turned out the light and stepped into the hallway.

**********
Alex arrived home after working all day at the cheese factory installing their new network. He saw that Isabel’s mom’s car was the only one in the driveway. ‘Good, she’s home alone.’

“Isabel,” he shouted the moment he walked through the door. “Where are you?”

“Sweetie!” he heard from the living room. He started towards the doorway when it slammed open. Isabel leapt into his arms. Alex spun her around and pinned her back against the refrigerator as her legs came up and locked behind him.

“I’ve been counting the minutes until I could come home to you,” Alex panted while kissing her. “I have never wanted you so much as I do right now. I compared every woman I saw today to you, and every one was lacking. They just made me want you more and more.”

“How much do you want me?” Isabel asked. She continued to tease him by touching and stroking him wherever she could reach him.

“Izzy,” Alex gasped, “No more. You don’t know how close I am to losing control.”

Isabel gave Alex her best flirty look. “I’ve been trying to get you to lose control for months. I’m right here, go for it.” She pulled his head to her and started nibbling on his ear and neck.

Alex lost it. He had to get his hands free so he carried Isabel to the kitchen table. He set her down and let his hands roam over her body. He hungrily devoured her mouth, but no matter where he touched or kissed, it was not enough. He needed more. Alex ran one hand under her hair up to the back of her neck while his other hand stroked it’s way up the outside of her thigh under her skirt.

Isabel crossed her legs behind him and pulled him closer as she slid to the edge of the table.

Alex continued kissing her, moving from her mouth to that special spot behind her ear. This started Isabel moaning, a sound which drove Alex mad with desire. He kissed his way down her neck until the fabric of her blouse blocked his way. He grabbed her blouse and tore it open. Her bra immediately followed as he found something new to kiss and nibble. He felt her hands intertwined in his hair, pulling his mouth tighter against her. “More,” he heard. “All the way.”

Alex tried to run his hand up her skirt, but it was too tight. He tore this from her as well. Now there was only one wisp of lace blocking his path. He pulled it, but it stretched. He pulled it some more, but it still refused to tear. He imagined that Isabel was not happy about receiving her first wedgie as she managed to wave her hand and make the offending garment float to the floor. Another wave of her hand and he was standing naked as the day he was born, his clothing in a heap next to his feet.

Alex felt Isabel take him in her hand and he happily followed as she guided him to the place where she needed him the most. He felt moistness as he heard Isabel plead “Now!” He resisted the pressure of her legs trying to pull him closer and leaned into her at a slow and steady rate.

Isabel fell back onto the table, no longer aware of her surroundings. She reveled in the sensations that Alex was spreading throughout her body. She could feel the tension build in her body with every movement Alex made.

Alex looked at Isabel writhing on the table and took delight that he was able to elicit such a reaction from her. He didn’t realize until too late that the sight of her would also affect him. He reached down and pulled her to him as his body took control from his mind.

The young couple lost track of their surroundings as they reached the peak of pleasure that only they could give to one another.

Alex looked her in the eyes, his desire still unstated. “I love you more than you will ever know.” He kissed her deeply but briefly. “But right now I want you more than I can stand.” He pulled her to the very edge of the table, bent down, and pushed against her hips with his shoulder. He lifted her in a fireman’s carry.

Isabel found herself looking at Alex’s back and the pile of destroyed clothing on the floor. She felt him pin her thighs to his chest with one hand and caress her rear with the other. As he started to carry her towards the hallway she was helpless to do anything but hang on. No romance here, just cold efficiency. Wherever Alex was taking her she could do nothing but go along for the ride.

Alex carried Isabel into her room and threw her onto her bed. He looked at her passion-clouded face and watched as she lifted her knees with her legs bent. “You want some more of me?” He asked with a growl in his voice as she opened her legs in invitation. Alex leapt on top of her, burying himself with one stroke.

He felt her hands on his back, pulling him down to her tightly. He heard her, “I need you. I need to feel you on top of me, pinning me. Make me yours, take me.” The words drove him wild. He wanted to become one with his mate. He wanted to take her to a place that she had never been before.

He reached down and grabbed one of her ankles, and swung her leg up so it was under his shoulder. He quickly did the same with the other leg. Lastly he grabbed one of her wrist in each of his hands. “Now what are you going to do? Try to move.”

He felt her try to move under him, but she couldn’t. She struggled harder, but although she could lift her head, the rest of her body was pinned. He lifted himself slightly putting his weight onto her arms and hips. He increased the power of his strokes, shaking her whole body.

“That’s right, you’re mine,” he hissed.

“Mmmmm.”

“There’s nothing you can do.”

“Ahhhh.”

“You are my mate, ever since we started connecting.”

“Ohhhh.”

“You will be my wife when I am ready to claim you.”

“Ahhhh.”

“You are the only one there ever will be for me. You are mine, and I will take you whenever I want.”

“Ahhhh, Ahhhh.”

“Don’t you dare close your eyes, look at me! Keep your eyes open, I want to watch you.”

“Ahhhh, Ahhhh, Gahhh, Ohhhh.”

Isabel clamped down on Alex, almost stopping him, but he was too carried away, and powered through her spasms. He stared into her eyes, and saw her soul, and although they seemed to wander in and out of focus, her eyes never lost sight of his.

Alex awoke with a start, his hands clutching his torn sheets. He felt a wetness down below. He looked down at himself, not seeing anything in the darkness. He knew what happened, they had covered dreams like this in health class. ‘Awww Fred, you really made a mess of things, didn’t you? I don’t care what Izzy says, I’m going to beat you with a stick.’ He climbed out of bed and changed his PJ’s, then went to the linen closet for fresh sheets.

Isabel came up to him in the dim light of the hallway. She could feel his distress so she touched his lips with her finger to silence him, and led him to the back porch where they could talk privately.

**********
“Sweetie, what’s wrong?” Isabel asked softly.

“Nothing,” Alex replied, not meeting her eyes.

Isabel reached and gently took his chin. She turned and lifted his face so his eyes met hers. “Alex, I hope you know by now that you can tell me anything.” She bit her lower lip waiting anxiously for his reply.

Alex looked into her eyes and saw nothing but boundless love for him, a love that he had violated. “I can’t tell you this,” he paused. “You’ll hate me.”

“Alex, it’s the middle of the night, you had a dream, right? That’s what all of this is about?” She smiled and shook her head. “Sweetie, we can’t always control our dreams, sometimes we can only go along for the ride.”

“But if I have a dream like that, it must come from here,” he said, pointing to his head. “It’s a result of my thoughts.”

Isabel thought back to seeing Alex changing his sheets, “Was it a sex dream?”

Alex averted his eyes, his guilt building.

“Was it of me?” Isabel asked, fearing the answer.

Alex instantly calmed her, “Of course it was about you, there will never be another, even in my dreams,,,”

“You came home from work, I was in the living room,,,” Isabel probed.

“Oh God, you saw it?” Alex turned away in dismay. “Oh how can this day get any worse?” He turned back to face the music, “Izzy, I am so sorry,,,”

“Wait a minute Sweetie. Do you think I’m offended?” she started to laugh gently.

Alex continued to apologize for his uncharacteristic behavior.

“You didn’t think that was your dream, did you?” Isabel asked, touched by his discomfort.

“I know you must think I’m some kind of freak,,,”

“No Sweetie. I don’t know how you did it, but you visited my dream. That was my fantasy. I dreamed that you wanted me so badly that you couldn’t restrain yourself.” Isabel reached for Alex’s hand and placed it over her heart, his warm palm on her hot skin. “I don’t think a guy can understand how much what you did this afternoon affected me, how protected I felt, how turned on I am just thinking about it. I want to shout from the rooftops that you are my man, and that you are willing to do anything to protect me,,,”

“But Izzy,” Alex interrupted, “Tbhe dream,,, the way I acted, the grabbing, the tearing, I’ll never treat you like that.”

“You’d better,” she said, slapping his shoulder flirtingly. “Maybe not now, maybe not next year, but we’ll get to a place where we are comfortable with each other. Every woman dreams of being wanted. And if I have to, I’ll tease you until you can’t control yourself.”

“I can’t even imagine,,,” Alex started to say.

“Alex, don’t put me on a pedestal so tall you can’t reach me. I’m human,” Isabel giggled, thinking about what she had just said. “Well I’m almost as human as everyone else. I have to eat and sleep. I go to the bathroom and have my period. I am mean to my friends when I get in a bad mood, and I get horny when I think of you.”

Alex started to interrupt, but Isabel silenced him with a finger to his lips.

“Sweetie, we are going to spend the rest of our lives together, and during that time we are going to do some things to each other that would make my mother blush and my father cry. When you run out of things to do to me, I have a whole list of ideas that I will whisper into your ear. I told you before; you are the only one there is ever going to be for me. Tonight was the first time,,,”

Alex was swept with a wave of tenderness for his mate and future wife. The feeling grew as he watched her grow silent, bite her lower lip, and look down demurely. “Izzy? I know that look, you’re embarrassed.”

“Well of course I’m embarrassed,” she giggled, softly. “This is as new to me as it is to you.”

Alex gently placed a fingertip under her chin and lifted her face to his. “Tell me, what was the first time tonight?”

Isabel looked into his warm eyes, her confidence returning, “In my dream, you made me,,, climax, for the first time. Twice.”

“You mean, all this time, you never?” …It was Alex’s turn to be embarrassed, realizing the question that he had just asked his girlfriend.

“Never!” Isabel said intently looking at him so he understood the importance of his words. “Do you think the Ice Princess would think so much of a boy that she would go home and fantasize about him? That I would think about my date with him and touch myself,,,”

Alex’s face was bright red at this information overload. Isabel couldn’t see him clearly in the dim light, but she could feel his emotions.

Isabel placed her hand over his heart. “No one could make me feel that way. No one but you.”

She fingered the cloth of his tank top. “What color is this, light grey? I thought you were wearing navy blue?”

“I was, but during our dream, I kind of,,, well you made me,,, I made a mess of them, twice.”

“Sweetie, I did that for you?” she said flirtingly, happy that he received the same pleasure she had enjoyed.

“Yea, you did. My first time too.”

“Oh come on!” Isabel slapped him gently on the shoulder, again. “I hear girls talk in the locker room. Guys can’t keep their hands off that thing. Are you saying you never…?” she let the question trail off.

Alex ran his hand across the side of her neck and cheek, causing her to shiver. “Guys are always looking and thinking. They see a girl in a tank top and try to figure what she’s wearing under it. If a girl is in front of them on the stairs they try to look up their skirt. If they can’t get a real girl they will buy a porno book. If their mom finds the magazine and throws it out they will use the Sears advertisement from the Sunday newspaper. Guys are always thinking about sex with every girl they see. And it’s true. Guys can’t keep their hand off that thing.”

Isabel thought back to some of the recreational dream walks that she had taken and realized that if anything, Alex was understating the truth.

“But I have never been like that. Liz and Maria are my friends, I have never thought of them any differently.” His voice started to get softer as if he was embarrassed at his admission. “I have never thought that way. I’ve never been attracted to anyone; I’ve never looked at a girl and thought of sex. I’ve haven’t,,,” He looked her in the eye, his confidence returning. “I’ve never wanted anything, but to be your boyfriend. If I had to wait my entire life for you to realize that, I would have. Tonight was the first time for me too.”

Isabel’s heart soared as she continued to realize just how much Alex loved her.

Alex misunderstood her silence. “You must think I’m some kind of freak,,,”

Isabel could only think of one response. She took Alex’s head in her hands and pulled him in for a kiss.

“I need you Sweetie, I have never wanted anything in my entire life like I need you right now. I have to know that you need me just as bad.”

Isabel continued to pour every ounce of being into her kiss. Alex was flattened against the side of the house, while Isabel ground against him. Nothing would please her more than if their bodies could melt and merge into one as their minds were doing.

“Izzy, I need you more than the air I breathe and the water I drink. You are the reason I exist. Without you in my life I would rather have never been born,,,”

Isabel’s passion soared.

“I’ve wanted you since the first time I saw you. I wanted to carry your books and share my lunch with you. During the past two years I wanted to make that haunted look in your eyes go away. I wanted to protect you from our enemies, and I prayed every night just to see you happy and peaceful.”

“You never prayed for this?” Isabel asked, switching to a series of quick deep kisses all over Alex’s face and neck. “You never wanted me like this?”

“I never dared to dream that you would think of me like this. I just hoped for a chance to make you smile. I only wanted to be there when you needed anything.”

And now?” Isabel asked hopefully.

“I don’t want this to ever end. I still want to protect you, and take care of you, but I also want to be the one you turn to. I want to be there for you every day and hold you every night.”

Alex thought back to the theme of her dream and turned into the aggressor. He turned Isabel so her back was against the house, squeezing her against the wall with his body. He held the side of her face, holding her in place as he kissed the side of her neck. His other hand reached for her breast through her top.

Isabel gushed in response realizing that the only man she ever loved was going to make her see stars again.

“Alex, I need you,,, I need you to make me,,, again.” She reached for his hand and guided it lower. “I can’t stand it, your making me so hot.”

Alex could feel the heat rising from her as she guided his hand inside the waistband of her boxers. He started rubbing his hand in small circles on her lower belly. He leaned into her pinning her upper body against the side of the house.

Isabel moaned, “Please,,, More,,, I need you.”

Alex lowered his caress, touching her hair. He ran his fingers through her hair from thigh to thigh.

“Don’t tease me. Do me,,, now!”

Alex inched lower, finding steamy moist warmth. Continuing to move his fingers in a circle through her hair he touched,,, something.

Isabel gasped and thrush her hips against his hand. “Mmmmm there,,, right there,,, more.”

Alex, realizing that she was already very moist and very close, decided to concentrate on his new discovery and to leave exploring further for the next time.

He stroked with two fingers, one on each side, every stroke getting closer.

“Talk to me,,,” Isabel whispered.

Alex continued his stroking, getting closer and closer. “Tell me you want this, tell me you need me.”

“Sweetie, you’re the only one there’s ever going to be. If you don’t do this for me, I’ll burst. I need you now more than anything I’ve ever needed in my life.”

“It’s up to me Izzy, you can’t control what’s going to happen. Your body is mine now, I’m going to decide what happens to you.”

“Ahhhh! Mmmmm! More!” Isabel slid her hands up his back, under his tank top.

“More? Or stop? Which should I do?” Alex could feel little spasms coursing through Isabel. Now was the time. He intensified his attack on her squeezing, twisting and tugging gently.

“Ahhhh! Ahhhh! Ahhhh!” Isabel was taking deep draughts of air, holding it, and then exhaling with a gasp.

Alex could feel her abdomen contracting, almost as if it wanted to turn in on itself. He continued his motions, determined to make Isabel last as long as he could.

“I don’t believe this! Me, Alex Whitman, class clown, here with Isabel Evans, Goddess,,,”

“Sweetie,,, Just you,,, My only,,, Ahhhh!”

“I want to give you everything,,, so much pleasure that you can’t stand it,,,”

Alex could sense that Isabel was coming to the end. ‘There must be more. If what I read in her Cosmo is right,,,’ He reached down and stroked from below. He felt a tiny parting, and then something else,,,”

“Ohhhh!” Isabel thrust her hips into Alex’s hand. She sank her nails into his back as a new and bigger wave swept through her. She opened her mouth to scream but before she woke the neighbors she bit down onto his shoulder. The spasms that shook her made the earlier ones look like tremors.

After much longer that Alex thought possible, Isabel began to wind down. As she regained control of her senses, she reached down and pulled his hand away from herself. “That’s enough,” she gasped. “I’m too tender. Hold me.”

Alex reached down and swept her into his arms. He carried her to the other side of the porch where he sat on a bench with her in his lap.

Isabel wrapped her arms around him, and buried her face against his neck. “Alex, Sweetie, I,,,”

“I know.” Alex replied tenderly.

‘I know too,’ thought Trude from her position on Isabel’s shoulder. ‘Well, my work here is done, for the moment,’ and with a snap of her fingers she was gone.

**********
Sunday morning Alex dropped Isabel off at her house, so they could each go to church with their parents.

After the service Isabel was in the kitchen talking with her mom.

“Mom, do we have enough for Alex?” She began to laugh. “He thinks his parents want to have the place to themselves this afternoon.”

“There’s always enough for Alex, tell him to come on over.”

“Thanks Mom, he’ll be here in a bit.”

“You know Iz, there’s something we need to talk about, about your,,, gift.”

“Mom?”

“Iz, I don’t keep secrets from my husband,” Diane said softly. “I’ve never done anything like this before.”

“Mom, this isn’t about me, it’s about Max. We have to get him under control. If it were up to me I would have told the both of you years ago. You can’t imagine what it’s like having to keep this secret, knowing whoever finds out is in as much danger as we are, knowing that for every extra person who knows the chance of ending up in a jar of formaldehyde in some FBI laboratory increases.”

Diane listened to her daughter, and looked at the haunted expression on her face. She realized that she would never be able to comprehend everything that her children were going through. “Well, I’m not going to let anyone put my baby in a jar, besides I think Alex would have something to say about that.”

“Alex can’t take on the world Mom,,,” ‘This one or another.’ “That’s why our best defense is to hide with pride.”

“Well, why don’t you go hide in the living room with your father until your body guard gets here.”

Isabel walked through the doorway and settled on the couch. After watching “Meet the Press” for several minutes she said with a sigh, “More jobs in 2001? What is President Bush engaged in, wishful thinking?”

Philip stopped watching the television and looked at his daughter instead. He continued to engage her, “Iz, the president has a bold and innovative plan to invigorate the economy,,,” but as she cut him off he switched into lawyer mode and began to study her.

“Daddy, the only plan the President has is to try to convince everyone that he has a plan.”

Isabel sat on the end of the couch. She was still dressed in her church clothes, her white linen suit. The same one she wore to dinner Friday night. She sat erect, her knees together, her hands cupped, one inside the other. He observed her erect posture, her measured reactions, her logical arguments, and her controlled smile.

He was now studying her in detail. The same young women that he had watched grow up for the past ten years. She was acting the same way she always had, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right. He barely noticed Diane join them.

There was a knock at the kitchen door followed by, “Hello.”

“Sweetie!” Isabel shouted.

Philip watched as she leapt from the couch, her face lighting up like a rising sun as she ran into the kitchen to meet her boyfriend. Moments later he winched as he heard a crash. He started to rise when Diane reached over and pushed him back into his seat. “Did you hear that?” he asked. “What was it?”

“I believe that was the refrigerator,” Diane said with a smile on her face.

Philip looked concerned.

“I suspect that your Amazonian daughter greeted her boyfriend with a flying hug. How can I put this so a guy can understand? Alex is going to have to learn how to toughen his stance.”

Isabel led Alex into the living room by the hand, laughing all the way. She stepped out of her shoes, and then out of respect for Philip they settled onto opposite ends of the couch, facing each other.

‘Isabel, barefoot?’ Philip asked himself.

“You’re kidding?” Isabel laughingly asked. “Your parents kicked you out of your house because they wanted to be alone?” “I guess that dream I gave them last night is still working.”

“What dream?”

“Do you remember me telling you they wouldn’t bother us while you were carrying me upstairs last night? I snuck in and hinted to the both of them to that they should dream about the first time they,,,.”

“No, that’s not what I said,” Alex replied, starting to blush. “Thanks for that visual of my parents together.” “I told you that they said I was spending too much time in my room on the computers, so they thought we should get out and do something this afternoon.”

“You are getting way too powerful,” Alex teased.

“So what are we going to do this afternoon?” she asked. “You could join me for a run?” “I’m getting powerful? Last night you entered my dream, and an hour ago you connected with me from your house. I’m a hybrid, I guess my powers grow the more I use them, what’s your excuse?”

Philip’s eyes grew wide as he watched his daughter. She had taken her good posture and demure attitude and thrown them out the window. She sat sideways on the couch facing Alex, her legs crossed Indian style. She had one arm thrown over the back of the couch and the other hand was idly rubbing her leg, her body language wide open. But the greatest difference was in her face. It was out of control. Gone was her trademark grin that he had grown to know and love for the past ten years. Now her face was practically split by a huge laughing smile, at times replaced by a downward looking grin as she bit her lip. But the greatest difference was in her eyes. He had never seen her so,,, alive.

“Izzy, it’s the middle of the day, in the middle of the summer, in the middle of the desert. I’m not going for a run unless I have one of those portable air conditioners they give the astronauts.” “I don’t have an excuse, I guess I’m spending too much time with my girlfriend. She’s rubbing off on me.”

“Well, what do you want to do?” “Do you remember how Liz started getting powers after Max healed her? We were already getting good at connections before,,, that day. You were brought back from the brink of death by Max, and then again an hour later by Ava. That’s got to be big mo-jo.”

Diane interrupted her husband’s thoughts. “Come on Philip, those potatoes aren’t going to peel themselves.”

Isabel and Alex sprung from the couch, “Mom, we’ll take care of that,” she explained.

“No, you two sit back down. I want to talk to your father in the kitchen.”

Philip smiled at his wife with affection and teased her as he followed her into the kitchen. “Potatoes, how do I get stuck with potatoes? That’s why we have kids. What are you going to expect of me next, dishes?” Philip walked to the kitchen counter, reached for a bowl and the peeler, and then stood looking at the door to the living room.

Diane studied him a moment before asking, “Philip?”

“Who is that woman out there?” He asked softly.

“That’s our daughter,” she replied tenderly, walking to him and placing her hand over his heart.

“But she’s so,,,?” he asked, struggling for words.

“Happy? Calm? Peaceful?” his wife supplied.

“Yea,” he replied with a smile.

“She’s in love,,,”

“Shopping?” they heard Alex exclaim through the door. “I took you shopping yesterday, and I’m still struggling to recover.”

Philip’s smile turned bittersweet. He shared his fellow man’s distress at another trip to the mall, tempered by the thought of the Hanson incident. Luckily for Alex, Philip would never find out that his daughter’s boyfriend was referring to a certain black negligee, and her plans for it.

**********
First thing Monday morning Max showed up at the Crashdown for breakfast. Liz took his order with a noticeably cool efficiency.

“Liz,” Max asked in his deep soft voice, the voice that had turned Liz’s knees to jelly so many times in the past. “I thought when you finished your shift we could go for a ride. I have a new car. We could,,,” his voice tapered off as he saw the look on her face.

“Max, I thought I made it clear. I won’t even consider getting back together until you get checked out by,,, Tess and your sister. You’re avoiding them, actually everybody. Go home Max, come back when you’re ready to talk.”

Max got up and walked out the door as Liz went into the break room. She leaned back against the lockers as her tears started.

**********
Alex opened the door to the travel agency for his girlfriend and her mom.

As Isabel passed by she reached out and took his hand. “This is really going to happen, isn’t it?”

“I hope so. Every time I think of going to Boston with you I’m afraid I’m going to wake up and find out it’s just a dream.”

“What’s the matter? You have trouble separating your dream life from reality?” she teased, biting her lower lip.

Alex just chuckled softly.

Isabel stopped and reached for Alex’s shirt, opening his top button and smoothing his collar. “I don’t know when you find time to keep doing that,” she sighed.

“Do what?” he asked, while sneaking a quick kiss.

“Trina,” Diane said, greeting her old high school friend. “How are things going?”

“It’s tough Diane,” Trina responded. “The internet is killing this business.”

“Well, Philip and I have always been happy with everything you’ve done for us. We’ll stick with you, which brings us to these two,” Diane said, indicating the young couple.

“I understand that you’re going to Boston to check out colleges?” Trina asked. “Boston is such a great college town. It’s small, and it’s a city with just about everything. Which schools are you planning to attend?”

“Alex is on target for early admission to MIT and I’m starting on the same process at Northeastern. We’re looking forward to visiting the colleges.” Isabel answered.

“So you’re going to school together?” Trina asked, confused. “How old are you?”

Alex shook his head. “There’s always confusion about our ages. We’re both starting our senior year of high school. We’re both seventeen. I’m going to turn eighteen later this week, and Izzy’s going to turn eighteen in October.”

“We’re looking forward to this trip so much,” Isabel continued. “There has been so much stuff going on lately, we need this vacation. I just want to get as far away as I can and forget everything about school, police cars, and especially trailer parks.”

“Okay Isabel,” Trina interrupted. “That’s the last time you mention going on vacation with your boyfriend. It’s going to be hard enough to make reservations as it is. From now on the two of you are friends who are looking at colleges, okay?”

“I don’t understand, I see teenagers flying all the time?” Alex wondered. “Why would we have a problem?”

“The children and teenagers you see on airliners are unaccompanied minors,” Trina explained. “Many of them are flying between the two homes of their divorced parents, or maybe they are visiting their grandparents. There is an adult at both ends of the flight. That’s not a problem. On the other hand you are an adult traveling with your minor girlfriend. That kind of thing makes hotel managers nervous. The reason I told Diane that you need a travel agent to book this trip is that I will make your arrangements personally and I will fax the hotel manager a waiver signed by Diane when I make the reservations.”

“You’re kidding,” Isabel responded sarcastically. “I need a note from my mommy to get a hotel?”

“You will until next October,” Trina replied.

Isabel turned towards Alex, “You’re so lucky that you’re older.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Trina continued. “We are going to have to file both a waiver and insurance rider with the rental company before we can Alex get a car.”

“Why’s that?” Alex asked alarmed.

“Because the rental companies have policies that restrict the availability of rentals to people under twenty-five.” Trina explained. “Isabel, you won’t be able to drive the rental at all.”

“I hate this,” Isabel pouted.

“Don’t worry Isabel,” Trina said calmingly. “I’ll take care of everything for you, and if there are any problems you can call me day or night. That’s why your mom is insisting on using a travel agent. Okay, if there are no more questions, lets start to plan this trip. When are you going?”

“We’re looking at the second week in August,” Alex replied. The young couple went over their plans and the college interviews that they have scheduled.

“I hate to say this, but we’ve been looking on the Internet,” Isabel said abashed. “We’re thinking of flying Southwest Airlines into Providence Rhode Island, and looking for a discount hotel outside of Boston.”

“Okay,” Trina replied. “Southwest does have deeply discounted fares,,,”

“No,” Diane interrupted. “Put them on a major airline, direct into Boston, first class. Set them up with a premium rental car, and book them a two-bedroom suite at the Park Plaza Hotel in the Fenway section of Boston. The Plaza has a fantastic restaurant, and their meals and expenses can to be charged to their room.”

“Mom!” Isabel exclaimed, with Alex joining in. “We can’t possibly afford a trip like that!”

Diane turned to Isabel and smiled, happy at having pulled off a surprise. “This trip is on Philip. He wants to do this for the both of you.”

“We can’t take this,” Isabel told Alex.

“Mrs. Evans,” Alex said for the both of them. “This is way too much, we can’t possibly accept.”

Diane looked at Isabel and saw that she agreed with Alex. She then looked at Trina, “Please excuse us a moment.”

Trina didn’t have anywhere to go in her small office to give them some privacy, so she turned and worked on her computer, unable to avoid listening in.

“Philip feels badly for the way he handled things at dinner last Friday. We had a long talk about it. He wasn’t ready to hear his daughter and her boyfriend planning the rest of her life together. He still sees you as his little girl.” Diane paused and took a deep breath. “I have to be honest with you. I’ve been waging a campaign for the past several weeks to get him to agree to allow you to take this trip together. He didn’t make up his mind to allow you to go until yesterday.”

“Mom?” Isabel asked tenderly. “What happened to change his mind?”

“The Sheriff changed his mind. You know as a lawyer, your father runs into Jim a lot. Apparently they have been talking about the two of you. Jim has a lot of respect for the both of you, and has been supportive of your dating. I guess Jim knew your father was hesitant about the two of you, because he made sure your father listened to the tape from Saturday night. He wanted Philip to see what kind of man his daughter had fallen in love with.”

“The Sheriff wanted Daddy to see Alex beaten up and dragged away in handcuffs?” Isabel exclaimed.

“No.” Diane responded. She looked at Alex with a tender look, “Jim wanted your father to hear that even with a gun to his head, Alex’s only concern was for your safety. When Philip first saw the tape his thoughts were of lawsuits and civil rights violations. He was a little ashamed of himself when he heard Alex beg Hanson to put his gun away because Isabel was close by and he couldn’t bear to see you hurt.”

“I don’t know what to say,” Alex replied, stunned.

“Neither does Philip. I’m sure that he will talk to the both of you when he gets his thoughts together, but in the meantime, we both want the two of you to get away and have a good time. There has been way too much trouble going on during the last several months, and we think you have both earned a vacation.”

“If you only knew.” Isabel thought.

“Well good,” Diane concluded. “It’s unanimous now. All four parents want to see the two of you together.”

**********
Isabel ran into her father’s office, catching him between clients. She gripped him in a tight hug, “Don’t ever stop being my daddy.”

“I won’t my little angel,” he said, holding her tightly with a tear slipping down his cheek. “You may grow up, and you may move away, but I’ll always be your Daddy, and your Mom and I will always have room for you. The both of you.”

It was a sign of Alex’s growing maturity and closeness to Isabel that he felt included in this intimate family moment. He shared in Isabel’s happiness.

After a moment Philip let go of his daughter. He faced Alex, “you take care of my little girl.”

“With my life,” Alex replied.

Hearing those three words, and seeing the look on their faces, Philip knew that this was a watershed moment. His baby was growing up, and was starting the process of letting Alex replace him as the most important male in her life. As he looked at them, he found peace with the fact that for the past several weeks, neither teen looked complete without the other close by. He silently wished them as much happiness as he had found with Diane.

Philip snapped out of his doldrums, “Well, you youngsters can take your old man out and buy me a cheese burger and fries for lunch since it looks like I have a trip to pay for. I hope you find whatever you’re looking for.”

Isabel beamed as she took them both by the hand and led them out of the office.

**********
Meanwhile, Jim was back at the Judge Lewis’s office. Although this time it was not his head on the chopping block, he didn’t feel any better.

“Tell me what you’re thinking Jim?” Judge Lewis asked.

“I can’t find a way out of this one Judge.”

“Jim, I admire the way you support your people, but lets face it. Hanson was a screw up.”

“Yea maybe,” Jim said, running his hand through his hair.

“I’ll make it easy for you Jim. We had a blackout; Hanson called in the State Police and almost shot up a tourist trap. A rock hound dug up some old bones and Hanson threw a kid in jail before the investigation even started. We’re lucky he hasn’t shot anyone. Wait a minute, he almost did. Not only did he hold a weapon to the only kid in the city that has his own lawyer on retainer, but the lawyer’s daughter was in the car with him.”

Jim instantly felt guilty, torn between his loyalty to Hanson and to his friends. The truth was that there was a body in the desert and there was a hostage situation. To be honest, Hanson had acted properly in both of those instances. He consoled himself with the fact that Hanson did pull a weapon and put both Alex and Isabel at risk. Jim resolved to find Hanson a good job somewhere else, maybe with a friend in Oklahoma. Meanwhile he continued with the part that fate forced him to play. He shook his head; “I can’t help but believe that with proper training and supervision we could have kept him out of trouble.”

“That takes money we didn’t have Jim,” the Judge explained. “I know for a fact that you haven’t taken a raise for the past five years. I read your comments on Hanson. You wanted to let him go at the end of his new hire probation. The only reason the city manager didn’t agree with you was the fact that we couldn’t afford anyone better.”

“So what do I do now?” Jim sighed. “Fire him and then start the whole process over again? I’m getting too old for this.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that. I think things are going to get better for your department.”

“I don’t know how, it sounds like a mess.”

“Your friend Philip Evans has been talking quietly to the city council, and with a multi-million dollar lawsuit in his back pocket, they are taking him seriously. Although Philip insists that Hanson has to go, it seems the teens are more interested in getting you some help to solve problems than going forward with a lawsuit.”

“Really? Although I shouldn’t say I’m surprised,” Jim asked, thinking back to Isabel and Alex’s command to their father. “They’re good kids, in fact both families are good people.”

“Well, imagine getting Deputy Blackwood back from Chavez County?”

“That would go a long way towards getting us back on track.”

The Judge stood, indicating that the meeting was over. “Why don’t you think about it. We’re going to have to tell Mr. Evans what our plans are.”

**********
Several days later Alex found himself home alone for the afternoon. Isabel was out with her girlfriends, ‘probably more shopping’ he thought. ‘Maybe new bathing suits for the Texas road trip next weekend. Well you had better get used to it.’ He decided it wasn’t so bad after all. ‘Isabel always looks good in whatever she wears.’ He had noticed that Isabel was changing her style slightly to accommodate his desires. He especially liked the fact that she wore a lot more tops with button closures. It was amazing how much of a difference a couple of extra opened buttons made. Alex, of course, didn’t realize that she was slowly changing his styles as well. He had not worn a pair of baggies since the end of the school year. One thing remained constant however; every shirt she bought him had a buttoned closure. Their usual ritual of greeting, and the adjustment of his collar, remained in force.

Alex sat down at the desk in his bedroom surrounded by his computer equipment. There was a new rack, which contained his PC and printer plus the new equipment, which was now fully functional. He booted the Blade workstation and started the new software that he had just spent so much time and money on. He transferred several files from his PC to the Blade, and sat back a moment before starting his new project.

‘Okay Tess, if you had just asked me to do this in the first place we would all been a lot better off. But noooo, you had to be your usual manipulative self and hurt everyone. Well you paid a high price for your ignorance.’ He took a deep breath and reached for the Enter key. “I dedicate this second effort to Isabel. She deserves to know who she is and where she came from.’ He started the program, and read the first screen. It offered a menu which included printing a manual, running a tutorial, opening the help file, or starting the program.

‘Instructions?” Alex thought, “I don’t need no stinking instructions. I have balls. Everyone knows that guys don’t read instructions.’ Alex chose to start the program. ‘Okay, lets see. Load the file to be decrypted, done. Select the language the file is in. Hmmm, Antarian isn’t on the list for some strange reason, but binary is. Damn, I loaded the raw file. Two minutes in and I have to start over.’ Alex restarted the program and loaded the newest of the files he produced in Las Cruces. ‘Well at least all of that work wasn’t wasted.’

‘Lets see, next it’s asking for a primer, what’s a primer?’ He reluctantly reached for the help key. He read, ‘The easiest method of translation or decryption is if an identical sample of both the source and target material is available. Well no luck there. Next option, common word search.’ Alex reached for the help key again. ‘Many documents contain a large number of commonly used words such as “the,” “and,” “I,” and “you”. This option attempts to isolate instances of these commonly used words.’ Alex shook his head in defeat.

When Isabel arrived home several hours later she found her boyfriend lying on his bed reading a manual for something on his new computer.

**********
Isabel finally finished her task for the evening, and sat down with Alex to watch Jeopardy.

“I have a job for you,” Alex said, handing her an envelope.

“What’s this?” she asked, opening the envelope. Her face broke into a huge smile. “Look at this. Pay to the order of Aries Technologies, the sum of twenty five thousand dollars. Sweetie,” she exclaimed pulling him into a hug. “You did it!”

“No, we did it. Don’t undervalue your contribution to this. There have been hundreds of high-tech companies that have come and gone in the past decade because the founders had technical knowledge but didn’t know how to run a company. I wouldn’t even have tried this without you.”

“So, for the next three years one of us is on cell phone duty, right?” she asked.

“It shouldn’t be that bad, not once we get the key people trained,” Alex explained. “Remember, we’re consultants. We’re not providing help desk services.”

Isabel settled down with her head on his lap. The rest of the world faded to nothingness as he began to stroke her hair.

“Izzy?”

“Hmmm?”

“We have our next job, well, we get to make a proposal on the next job.”

“Let me guess. Stanford already has problems with his network. He wants a bid on the rest of the project.”

“I think we should go for it.” Alex suggested. “Think about it. We go to one of the big boys, CDM or CSC, and buy all of the hardware in one shot. At the same time, instead of having individual programs preinstalled on the systems, we purchase site licenses for everything they need.”

“Sweetie,” Isabel questioned biting her lip. “We can’t go against the big companies like this, can we?”

“Why not?” Alex exclaimed. “Think about it. We don’t have buildings to maintain, and we don’t have employees to pay. We can sell for less because our costs are less.”

“Okay, what’s the plan?”

“Well, I think the project will come in at about seventy five thousand dollars. Thirty five to forty thousand dollars of that involves purchases, while the rest is service and consulting. You need to check the math, but if we bid twenty percent down net thirty days, we get a fifteen thousand dollar payment with the purchase order. We add that to our twenty five thousand dollars and we can purchase everything we need. Then we set the network up in my garage. We configure the hardware and load the software, and then when it’s ready, we install it all at once. For that we put sixty thousand into the bank, until we get nailed for taxes.”

“How much work are we talking?” Isabel asked, already in her planning mode.

“It will take a week of planning and ordering. When the equipment comes in it will take another week to configure the network.”

‘If we need to install hardware, I’m figuring you can zap it. The project is two servers and twenty-five PC’s. I’ll spend as long as necessary to get the first of each exactly perfect. Then I can use Norton’s Ghost software to clone the rest of the units.”

“Installation?”

We have to do it on a weekend, while they are down. First weekend we swap out the servers, and upgrade everything but the desktop units. Second weekend we hire Kyle, Max, and Michael. We pull the old equipment from the desktops and install the new.”

“Sounds good to me,” Isabel agreed. “Lets get some firm cost, type it up, and see what happens. Okay Sweetie, enough with the hair, get to work on my neck and shoulders.”

**********
The next day at lunch, Isabel was sitting at ‘her’ booth at the Crashdown. She had stopped by her house on the way over and was going through her mail. She sat there looking at a letter, reading it over and over again.

Maria was keeping an eye on Isabel from a safe distance. She instinctively knew that the only way she would make it through her shift without having to deal with a crisis was to maintain a ‘safety zone’ around her tall friend. She heard the door open and turned to see Alex walk into the restaurant. She had never been so happy to see him in her life.

Alex waved to Maria as he walked up to Isabel’s booth. He noticed the look on her face. He knew that look; he had been on the receiving end of that look for years. He approached with caution. “Hey Izzy.”

“Bite me!” Isabel snapped without looking up from the letter.

“Izzy, is there something you want to talk about?” Alex asked carefully.

“Eat shit, bark at the moon, and die!” Isabel said as she folded the letter and turned to place it in her purse.

Alex shrugged and turned away. He stopped to talk to Maria on the way out.

Maria watched Alex as he walked out the door. ‘Damn girlfriend, I didn’t think you had it in you. Take that new backbone out for a spin.’

Isabel stepped into the restroom for a minute. When she returned to her booth she found that Maria was sitting there waiting. A half-full glass of Coke was in front of her.

“What do you want?” Isabel snapped.

Instead of responding Maria took the cap off a bottle of Tabasco sauce. She used a fork to pull out the little plastic drippie thing, and then poured the entire contents of the bottle into the glass of soda.

“Just leave me alone, will you?” Isabel continued, starting to get irritated.

Maria opened a second bottle of Tabasco. “You know, Michael told me once that I’m the only person he knew of who could hold my own against you when you’re in one of your moods.” She poured the second bottle of Tabasco into the soda glass and then stirred the mixture.

Isabel looked at the glass, “What are you doing?”

“I’m mixing my friend a drink. She’s upset, and I’m trying to do something nice for her.”

“I’m not upset, I just want to be left alone.”

“Really? Eat shit, bark at the moon, and die? I figured you would have to be pretty upset,,,”

“That person was bugging me.”

“That person was Alex.”

“Alex? He was here?” Isabel asked with a tremor in her voice. “Where is he?” she asked, her voice softening.

“He said he would talk to you tonight, when you are feeling better.”

“I can’t wait until tonight.” “Alex? Can you hear me?”

Maria looked at her.

“I can’t reach him.” “Alex, Sweetie? Are you out there? I need you!”

Maria handed Isabel her cell. “Why don’t you try him the old fashioned way?” she added gently.

“I think he’s blocking me, I didn’t know he could do that,” she muttered, dialing him.

“Hey,” Alex answered.

“Alex? Are you doing anything special?”

“Yea, I’m going over to Kyle’s to see if he’s home.”

“Sweetie, I’m sorry I blew you off, but can you come back to the Crashdown?”

“I’m almost at Kyle’s. Can I meet you later?”

“Please? I need to talk to you about something.”

“Okay, I’ll be there in about ten minutes.”

“Thanks Sweetie, love you. Bye”

Alex turned his cell off and slid it back into his pocket. He leaned back against the outside wall of the Crashdown. ‘Boy, if she came out the door right now and caught me, she’d kill me.’ Alex wanted to be close by in case his girlfriend needed him, but he realized that everyone had a bad day now and again, and wanted to be left alone. On the other hand, he didn’t want her to know he was hovering, he had learned his lesson about smothering her.

After a couple of minutes he went back inside. He looked at her as he approach their booth. She looked to be on the verge of tears. Alex was swept by a wave of guilt over his little deception. He instantly opened his connection and started to send love and comfort to her.

Maria saw him approach and reached down and touched the back of her hand, “You’ll be okay now, Alex will take care of you.”

He slid into the booth next to her, placed his hand on top of hers. “What’s wrong Izzy?”

Isabel smiled at her boyfriend, “I can feel you, I’m better already.” She took a breath. “I received a letter from Northeastern University. They aren’t going to allow me to transfer my advanced placement program from San Francisco.” She handed him the letter.

Alex quickly read the letter. “Izzy, I don’t think it’s that bad,,,” He looked at Isabel, not wanting to contradict her.

“Sweetie, tell me what you think. I have to admit that I didn’t get past the first paragraph.” She wiped her face free from the remains of the tears she had shed earlier. “You might not realize it, but your girlfriend is upset and may not be reading it right.”

Alex looked at Isabel and cracked a grin, “Somehow I picked up on the upset part.” He quickly read the letter a second time, wanting to get the facts right. “I think they are saying that the existing program that you have for San Francisco can’t be used intact. On the other hand, your classes can.”

“You really think it’s going to be okay?”

“I promise. Think about it. There are a lot of us taking A.P. courses, and we are all going to different colleges. The courses have to be standardized. But the program and paperwork is probably different for every college. Will you let me help?”

“Of course Sweetie! I wouldn’t be doing this at all without you.”

“Okay, lets go to the high school. Someone from guidance must be working through the summer. Maybe we can get some help. Tonight, we can go on the Internet and download some forms and start a new program for you. And remember, you already have an interview scheduled at Northeastern while we’re in Boston. We can fix this.”

Isabel looked at Alex with a smile on her face as her eyes flooded with tears. She buried her face in his shoulder as his hands came up to comfort her.

“Izzy, what’s wrong?” Alex asked, instantly concerned.

Maria had been watching the young couple, and she returned to their booth as soon as she saw the waterworks start. “Isabel?” she asked softly.

Isabel looked up at her friends. Seeing the concern on their faces, she quickly moved to calm them, “No, no, I’m happy.”

Alex reached to caress her hair and shoulder as Maria looked on with a question on her face.

“Every time something has happened to me, I’ve had to go through it alone. I’ve had to keep secrets from my mom. I couldn’t talk to Max and Michael without their passing judgment and taking control.”

“You don’t have to worry about that anymore Izzy,” Alex explained.

“Is everything okay?” Maria asked.

“It will be,” Isabel answered. “Changing schools from San Francisco to Boston is messing up my A.P. classes. Sweetie here not only asked my permission before jumping in, but he came up with a plan in minutes.” She leaned over and kissed him.

“What do you expect?” Maria responded. “Liz and I pick our friends carefully.”

“Oh and Maria?” she asked, the smile still on her face.

“Yea?” the waitress replied.

“You know I can’t let that ‘mood’ crack go unanswered, don’t you?”

Maria laughed, “Of course, take your best shot.”

**********
Alex finished his computer project and joined Isabel in the living room just as his cell rang. He quickly took the call and then hung up.

“Who was that?” Isabel asked, reaching for his collar.

“Max. He wants us to meet at the Crashdown tomorrow evening to go over the plans for their trip to the concert and our road trip.”

“That’s just like him,” Isabel pouted. “Tomorrow’s your birthday. What if I had plans for you? I hate it when he gets into his control mood.”

Alex leaned over and kissed her, then pulled her close so she was leaning on him. “I’m sure he doesn’t mean anything by it, he probably doesn’t even know about me. Why would he?”

She looked at him; her pout bigger than before, if that was possible.

“You know I don’t want anyone making a fuss. We’ll just go to dinner with Mom and Pop, and then go to the Crashdown. But I’ll tell you what. Do you really want to do something special for me?”

Isabel turned towards him excitedly, “You mean hot sweaty mind blowing alien sex?”

“Someday! But I was thinking of a nice thick creamy slice of key lime pie. I love key lime pie, and you can’t get it anywhere around here.”

“You’re too easy to please.”

“True, true. I have everything I’ve ever wanted right here,” he said, looking into her eyes.

Isabel treated him to a good kiss, with a side of tongue. “Hang on Sweetie, I’m going to go up and change.” ‘Yea right, I’m going to go change and make a call to Amy with a special request.’

**********
Vicky Delaney was in for the night. She was lying on her bed listening to music and reading. Due to the heat she was only wearing a tee shirt and thong. Well you could call it a tee shirt, but over time it had shrunk to the point that it barely reached her waist. Add the fact that Vicky had torn out the neckline, the net effect was that she was not wearing much.

Vicky’s best friend, Suzie was on the bed with her. Suzie wasn’t listening to music or reading. Suzie only had eyes for Vicky. While Suzie loved the entire family, she would do anything for her best friend. Vicky looked over at Suzie and smiled. She reached over and stroked Suzie with her foot. Vickie loved the feel of Suzie. Belgium Tervurens are a breed of dog renowned for the soft feel of their fur. Suzie also exhibited another trait of the breed. She was insanely protective of her mistress. Vicky had to put Suzie into her carrier whenever a boy came over to pick her up for a date. Suzie was okay after she saw Vicky warm up to the guy, but during the first five minutes her inclination was to eat the poor boy alive.

Suzie stood on the bed facing the window, a low grown reverberating through her broad chest. Vicky looked at the window and let out a shriek. “Get him Suzie! Go get him.”

Suzie leapt from the bed, crashing through the screen.

Jesse was standing on a trashcan with his face in the window. He was almost hit in the face by the flying screen before he managed to fall on his ass. Jesse was able to get most of the way to the fence before Suzie got a hold of him.

Suzie bit through Jesse’s pants and got just a bit of leg. She released him and leapt against him again, slamming Jesse into the fence. This time when she bit down she got nothing but meat.

“Aaaggghhh,” Jesse screamed. “Not the ass, why is it always the ass?” Jesse managed to pull himself over the top of the fence. Jesse leaned back against the fence, catching his breath. He closed his eyes thinking of the young girl. ‘All in all,’ he thought with a smile, ‘she’s probably worth it.’

Tervurens are also a very intelligent herding dog. As a result, while Suzie understood the concept of fences, more importantly she also understood the concept of gates. Suzie ran to the far side of her yard and bolted through the open driveway gate.

Jesse’s relief turned to panic as he heard Suzie’s barking coming from the front of the house and getting closer. The sound

Posted: **Sat Aug 27, 2005 10:47 pm**

Side effects tickets are finally on sale for Sept 30 at the MFA.

http://tickets.mfa.org/cgi-bin/ncommerc ... kID=mfabse

I got mine, anyone else going?

Starry

Posted: **Sun Aug 28, 2005 12:13 am**

I want to see this movie so bad I can taste it, have you been to the site? We have the coolest podcasts from the director and tons of other cool stuff. Paul, WE have to hook up and talk

BTW great part, I can't wait till you get all the parts updated I miss reading it

Posted: **Sun Aug 28, 2005 12:33 am**

i haven't been to Side Effects for a bit,,, seemed like when i first went there i was having trouble opening/downloading something,,, it kept tripping Norton's as some king of virus.

I decided to go the moment i heard about it,,, Boston isn't a big deal for me,,, i go every month or two and have been to MFA several times,,, in fact the big deal will be getting a fri night off,,, i'm working retail for a while,,, home depot,,, retail sucks.

Re the update,,, i hate that it will take a while to edit and re-post, but it definately needs it,,, although not so much now at part 10 as at the beginning,,, but the bordello crash was such a bummer. course Trude wants a new part too,,, but i think that's because there isn't much left on their list of firsts,,, i like trude,,, europeans can be so much more laid back about things.

I promise two things,,, their first will be like nothing i've ever read in fan fiction,,, and it will also carry an interesting story twist,,, but alyays, steam without the graphics.

P

Posted: **Sun Aug 28, 2005 12:44 am**

Yes I love trude she is very easy going with it all, I would love a new update but would just like the stuff you had posted at bordello to be up again I miss reading it, and I have no doubt the new update will be amazing, I love the fact that this story is taking them down a wonderful road of firsts and letting us watch them grow...I so wish I could do that but I have no patients when it comes to these things and I tend to get ahead of myself.

I'm sorry the side effects site was giving you trouble, it does that sometimes as they all do. Last nite I couldn't get on there for the life of me.

and YES retail sucks, I just applied to wal-mart for ther christmas holiday and I'm NOT excited about it

Posted: **Thu Sep 01, 2005 5:58 am**

Gazer gets the Girl
Chapter 11 - One Special Evening

by Stargazer_md

Disclaimer: The characters don’t belong to me. If they did, the show would still be on.
Some text is borrowed from the show, I didn’t treat it any worse than the original writers.
Summary: Izzy fights for her man.
Setting: End of S-2.
Category: Alex/Isabel with CC
Rating: Mature, eventually.
Credits: Shania Twain, “From This Moment On,” From Come On Over, Mercury Records, 1997

Where were we?
Despite a little run in with the law, our young couple nevertheless still have several projects in the works.

**********
Alex stuck his head into Isabel’s room, “Come on Izzy, we’re going to be late.”

“Don’t worry about it,” she replied. “Daddy and I were late leaving his office. He won’t be ready on time either.”

Alex walked in and leaned down resting his arms on her shoulders. He watched her reflection in the mirror as she added the final touches to her make up and hair. “Izzy, you can’t improve on perfection,” he said as he kissed her on the top of her head. He left his nose buried in he hair and inhaled, “I love the way you smell.”

Isabel smiled at him in the mirror and added, “You’re so easy to please.”

“What can I say, I’m a man of modest wants. I have everything I need to make me happy right here,” he sighed, tightening his hold on her.

“Modest? Are you describing me as modest?” she exclaimed, teasing him. “I’ll have you know that I consider myself to be exceptional. If you want to stay my mate you had better raise your expectations.”

Alex stood back, “Your wish is my command,” he said, saluting her with a sweeping bow. He arose to her laughter and reached for her hand, “Come Princess, your carriage awaits.”

“Isabel looked at her dresser, certain she was forgetting something, but she laughing followed her ‘prince’ as he dragged her down the stairs.

Once in the car Alex tried to ask Isabel about her day, but noticed that she was fidgeting. Suddenly she turned to him, “Take me home.”

“Isabel, what’s wrong?”

“I don’t have my floating heart, take me home.”

“Izzy, what your wearing looks fine. You don’t need your heart and besides, we’re already late.”

“Alex. Turn the car around,” Isabel commanded. She added in a softer voice, “You don’t understand. With the exception of washing and sleeping, I have had my heart with me since the moment you gave it to me. I need it.”

“Come on, there have been many times when I’ve seen you without it.”

“I don’t always wear it on the chain, but it’s always with me.”

“Okay then, I’ll take to your house. How did it end up there?”

“No Sweetie, home, our house.”

Alex had a special smile on his face, thinking of his girlfriend’s reference to ‘their house’ as he pulled into the driveway.

“Stay here, I’ll only be a moment,” Isabel said as she jumped out of the car.

She returned a moment later. “Here, watch,” she said opening several buttons on her blouse. She held the floating heart, without its chain, against the left cup of her bra, right over her heart. Her fingertips glowed for a moment, “There, it’s between the shell and the lining. Now you’re the only other person who knows that it’s there.”

Alex looked at her with a huge smile on his face. “Now are we all set?” Alex asked.

“All set. Get going slow poke,” she teased. “I’m starving.”

As they were driving to dinner Isabel looked over to Alex, “How do we stand on the new project? I know you were working on it all day today, is there anything I can do to help?”

Alex looked at her quickly, “No, today I was working on a special project of mine.”

“Anything I can do to help?” she asked eagerly.

“Not just yet, I need to achieve some level of success with this before I show it to you.” Alex paused a moment, “You know, we don’t have to talk about this now, you worked all day for your father. You should have the evening off.”

“Sweetie,” Isabel replied, touched by his concern. “I understand the life we’ve chosen for ourselves. It’s not like we punch a time clock at Wal-Mart and leave work behind every afternoon. We have our own business, and that is always going to be on our mind. We may go to a nice restaurant for dinner and meet with a client. We may have go on vacation with a cell phone and a laptop. But remember, Daddy’s a lawyer, I grew up that way, to me it’s normal.” She turned in her seat to face him and reached to touch his leg reassuringly, “But remember Sweetie, what we build is ours, and as long as we enjoy what we do it won’t be a burden. So go ahead and tell me, where do we stand, and what can I do to help?”

Alex looked at her,,,

“Oh, is that for me?” Isabel sighed as a tingle of affection swept through her body. “I love you too, but you had better never do that to me when we’re in a meeting with a client,” she added with a laugh.

“Okay, everything we need is already on P.O. (purchase order) The software is due in via Fed-Ex tomorrow or the next day. I’m going to start building an image of the install on the Blade, so that when the (H.P.) NetServer 2000-R’s come in I’ll be able to configure them quickly. We install the servers the weekend after we get back from Texas. The workstations are scheduled to be delivered to our house as soon as we get back from Boston. The monitors and printers will be delivered directly to the Cheese Factory and waiting for us. We need to clone the workstations so they are ready to install two weekends after the servers.”

“You don’t see any issues with that? We’re getting awfully close to the start of school.”

I don’t see any issues as long as everyone still wants to come and work with us on the install. We may have some hardware glitches to work out, but those should show up during the first week. Any problems after that should be able to be dealt with remotely.”

“Well first,” Isabel replied, “I think everyone will be willing to come in. They seemed to be more than happy with our offer of a hundred and fifty dollars for a day’s work, and the pizza party and sleep over afterwards didn’t hurt. Second, I think we should plan on spending at least the first couple of days on site to give any problems that arise the personal touch.”

“Sounds like a plan, see smart and beautiful,” Alex added teasingly.

“And don’t you ever forget it!” she concluded. “Now be a gentlemen and come get my door.”

“Yes mistress,” Alex said in his best ‘Igor’ voice.

Isabel waited in the car for Alex to walk around to her side and open her door. As she took his hand and stepped out of the car, she maneuvered herself in front of him. With a smile she reached up and opened his top button and smoothed his collar.

“I thought you were going to forget,” Alex teased.

“Oh no Sweetie,” Isabel replied. “I would never forget, I was just distracted for a moment.” She walked slowly enough so that she could feel the pressure of his hand on the small of her back as he guided her into Senor Chow’s. As a result she was able to feel his hesitation when they entered the back dining room and he saw their parents.

Before they could approach the table, a waitress approached them carrying a bowl of Chinese hot mustard.

“Senorita Isabel, Senor Alex, it is so good to see you again,” Juanita said. “Jorge, come and see, Miss Hot Stuff and her nice boyfriend are back.”

Isabel reached out and took a spoonful of the hot mustard. She looked at Juanita, with a smile on her face. She raised her eyebrows performing her best ‘Groucho’ imitation and ate the mustard.

Juanita turned to Jorge, “That’s the hottest mustard I can find, and she still wants more.”

When Isabel finished talking with the wait staff, Alex led her to the table where their parents were, and held the seat for her. Looking around the table, he did not like the look on his fathers face.

Charles had watched this little exchange with growing impatience.

“Good evening everyone,” Alex greeted the parents. “Thank you for joining us here tonight.”

Isabel was already leaning over and exchanging comments about her day with both her mom and Gloria.

“We’re happy that you would share this special day with us,” Philip said in greeting.

“I’m happy you made it Son,” Charles added. “I was starting to get worried, you’re late.”

Everyone could feel a chill descend over the table as the women stopped talking to watch the developing drama on the other side of the table.

“Sweetie?” Isabel asked. “What’s going on?”

“I’m sorry Pops, we were running behind.” “It’s okay Izzy, I’ll take my lumps and then it will be over.”

Isabel sat up straighter and took a breath before intervening and defending her mate from this unwarranted attack. Suddenly she felt Gloria’s hand on hers. She saw Alex’s mom silently signal ‘no’ to her. Something was going on here, and Isabel didn’t have any idea what it was.

“It’s incredibly disrespectful to our guest Alex, you’ve kept both Isabel and her parents waiting.”

“Alex, Sweetie, it’s my fault we’re late. I don’t want to see you talked to that way for something I did.”

“I understand Pops,,,” “Izzy, let me handle this. Please, don’t say a word.” “I promise it won’t happen again.” Alex turned to the Evans, “I would like to apologize for our late arrival. I hope that no one was inconvenienced.”

“Well all that matters is that you’re both here now,” Diane responded. “Now take your seats, they’re bringing out the Pu-Pu platters. The guys ordered so many appetizers that we may not need to order a main course.”

“So what do you think of Oklahoma’s starting line up for the fall?” Charles asked Philip.

Isabel glared at the two men. She took a breath before pasting a smile on her face and turning to Alex. “Sweetie, why don’t you tell us about the new contract we just won.”

The looks on both teens’ faces were not lost on the mothers. They immediately engaged Alex in conversation.

**********

As the empty platters were taken away, Gloria excused herself. Isabel quickly threw her napkin on the table and follower her through the dining room. Realizing why Isabel had joined her, Gloria stopped in the anteroom outside the powder room and sat on a small couch.

Before Gloria could say anything Isabel let loose. “Why did you stop me from defending Alex? I won’t let anyone attack him like that, not even his father!”

“Isabel, he didn’t attack Alex, not really. Charles has spent much of his adult life in the military. As a result he has a much greater appreciation with the little things that show discipline, politeness, and respect to others. He has raised all of our sons with those same values. To be honest, he is the reason for many of the values that you find attractive in Alex.”

“That’s no reason for Mr. Whitman to hold Alex responsible for the fact that I made us late.” Isabel placed her hand over her breast, drawing comfort from the fact that she was touching Alex’s heart. “Alex kept prodding me along, but I took my time. I’m going to explain to his father that it was my fault we were late.”

“Oh no you’re not!” Gloria exclaimed. “Before you arrived Charles was explaining how proud he is of the two of you, of everything that you have accomplished. He was surprised and a little embarrassed that you were late. That’s why he reacted the way he did.”

“So that makes it okay for him to berate Alex like that?” Isabel demanded.

“That’s not what I’m saying at all, and he’ll hear about it from me when we get home.” Gloria took a deep breath, “I think you’re reading too much into this. You may have noticed that they have already got past it, but if you say anything to Charles, and he realizes that he upset you, he’ll be mortified. He’ll make an excuse and leave. Neither one of us want that.”

“If you think Alex isn’t upset, I’ll ask you why he didn’t have anything to eat.” Isabel recoiled as she saw a hurt look cross Gloria’s face. She raised her hand to her face, “Oh God, I don’t believe I said that.’ She reached and took the older woman’s hand. “Gloria, I am so sorry, I don’t know what came over me. I don’t mean to be disrespectful, especially as you have been so kind as to allow me to be a guest in your house.” Isabel looked a little lost.

“Isabel,” Gloria said softly, “I know what came over you. Don’t ever let anyone stop you from loving him like that.”

“What am I going to do?” Isabel asked, mollified.

“You’re going to take Alex out and cheer him up. In the mean time I’ll take care of Charles.”

**********

“Alex watched as they returned to the table. “Is everything alright? You were gone for a long time.”

“Yea, I just needed to talk to your mom for a minute. Are you okay? You look, I don’t know, kind of worn out.”

“Izzy, I’m fine. I should have called and explained that we were going to be late, I knew this was going to happen.”

“Oh no you don’t. This is supposed to be your special day. I’m not going to sit here and idly watch you accept the blame for spoiling it.”

“There isn’t a college worth mentioning on the entire East coast,” Charles argued.

“Now wait a minute,” Philip countered. “I bet a lot of people in Syracuse N.Y. or Maryland would argue with you.”

“Nope,” Charles declared, “Anyone who would go to any college other than a big ten college has to have their head examined.”

“Alex?” Diane asked with concern, “You don’t look that well. Are you alright?”

Gloria caught Isabel’s eye and nodded towards the door.

“Alex,” Isabel stated, switching into command mode, “I think something you had this evening didn’t agree with you.” She turned towards her parents, “I know I haven’t seen you for a couple of days, but you’ll have to excuse us.” She turned towards the Whitman’s, “I hope you’ll forgive me if we don’t go straight home.” She tossed her napkin onto the table next to her uneaten meal as she stood, “Come with me Sweetie, I’m going to take you for a ride into the desert and get you some fresh air.”

**********
The snake, in obedience with divine inspiration, but mostly fearing that it could catch a disease, refrained from biting Jesse. Letting out a deep breath, Jesse carefully backed out of the drainage pipe. He had almost made his escape when the torn and bloody backside of his pants was illuminated by a deputy’s flashlight.

“Jeez, what’s that?” she asked her partner.

“I don’t know,” the other deputy replied. “Lets see how it likes pepper spray.”

Jesse screamed as the cayenne juice burned its way into his mangled rear. He tried to jump upright, but instead knocked himself out cold on the roof of the culvert.

**********
Isabel took Alex’s hand and led him from the car to their stargazing rock in Frazier Woods. It was a place she knew she could use to calm him down. Isabel watched as he sat down and got comfortable before settling next to him and melting into his side.

“There’s a blanket in the car,” Alex said softly. “I’ll go get it, you’ll be more comfortable that way.”

“Sweetie, I’m sorry,” dismay evident in her voice. “We can’t stay here long. We promised to meet the others at the Crashdown at closing.”

She heard his voice brighten, “Izzy, lets blow them off. I don’t ever want to leave here, I don’t want to ever let you go.”

Isabel, wise beyond her years, didn’t say a word and just let him hold her.

After several minutes Alex continued softly, “I don’t know why I feel this way. I never went hungry; I always had everything that I needed, and most of what I wanted. My father has always loved me, and has always done his best for me. Why isn’t that enough? Why do I always want more?”

Isabel lifted his hand and kissed it.

“Not going to say anything?” Alex asked turning towards her.

“Not this time Sweetie,” Isabel answered, facing him. “It’s guys that always need to have all the answers, they have to fix everything. Sometimes girls just listen. We just listen, and we support, and we,,, I,,, love you, unconditionally.”

Alex held Isabel as if his life depended on her. Gradually his feelings of self-doubt faded and were replaced with the warm feeling of love that Isabel was radiating. He leaned down and inhaled the scent of her hair and kissed her on the top of her head.

Isabel felt his mood change and teased, “I have your present.”

Alex momentarily thought to protest that he didn’t want a fuss, but then conceded that he had to allow Isabel to enjoy doing things for him like he needed to do nice things for her. “Really? Let me guess, a flashlight?” he teased back.

Isabel rested her arm on Alex’s shoulder, with her palm extended and up. “Sweetie, I’ve been working on something, watch this.” A ball of bluish white light grew on her palm. Although the light was brilliant, it was at the same time easy on their eyes. She reached with her other hand and picked up his present.

Alex took the gold box, wrapped with a bright red ribbon. He opened the box and set it on her lap so he could look at the contents. “What did you do? Buy out the local Wal-Mart?”

“Oh no Sweetie, nothing in there came from Wal-Mart.”

He pulled out the first piece and held it up to the light. It was a CD, the new limited edition release Karma, by Sarah McLachlan. “This is great Izzy, I’ve been wanting this ever since it came out.”

I’m glad you like it Sweetie, I hate to see you get so busy you miss out on your music.”

The next gift was a shirt. Alex wasn’t surprised to find that it had a mandarin collar. “This fabric is incredible, what is it, silk?”

“It’s microfibre, Sweetie,” Isabel explained. “If I’m going to go out with you, you’re going to be dressed right, and if you want me to touch you, well, you know how I feel about cotton. Keep going Sweetie.”

Alex held up the final item and looked at it. It consisted of a small amount of leopard skin fabric and several straps. “What is this a bra?”

Isabel just giggled as Alex turned the garment until it ‘hung’ right.

“Oh my God, it’s a g-string?”

“No Sweetie, girls wear g-strings, guys wear pouches,” Isabel replied laughing fully now.

“I don’t know Izzy, I wore one of these before and I was uncomfortable all day.”

“Sweetie,” Isabel replied, looking him right in the eyes, “You put that on for me and I promise I’ll tear it off with my teeth before you have a chance to feel any discomfort.”

Alex didn’t know how to respond.

“Alex? Sweetie? Come on,,, you can do it. Take a breath. Come on Sweetie, breathe for me, that color of purple doesn’t look good on you. Sweetie,,,”

**********
Gloria rode the entire way home in silence. Charles attempted to start a conversation several times before giving up. When he opened the front door of the house and held it open for her, she walked through and then slammed it in his face. ‘This is going to be a long night,’ Charles thought as he followed her in.

Gloria stormed up the stairs and charged into her bedroom. By the time Charles made it up the stairs she was already placing her dress on a hanger and pulling on her robe. She squared off with Charles and asked, “Did you enjoy yourself tonight?”

Charles had already figured out that he was in trouble, but thought the question was too innocent for it to be a trap, so he answered honestly. “Yes I did. It felt great to talk football with Philip.”

Gloria fired up, “If you want to do male bonding with Philip,,,”

Too late Charles realized his error.

“Go out after work and have a beer. Tonight wasn’t about you. It was your son’s birthday, and we were Isabel’s invited guests. She has spent the last two weeks planning this and you ruined it the moment they came through the door.”

“I didn’t ruin anything,” Charles rebutted.

“Oh really? Then tell me why Alex looked miserable, why he didn’t eat a thing all evening. And I’ll tell you something else. It’s a good thing Isabel isn’t Superwoman, because if looks could kill you would be a pile of dust right now.”

Charles sat on the edge of his bed and put his face in his hands.

“Aren’t you proud your son has been accepted to M.I.T.? Do you know how special he is? He was accepted for early admission in his junior year of high school. Thousands of students apply for early admission every year. Do you know how many were accepted during their junior year? I’ll tell you. You can count them on one hand.”

“Gloria,” Charles replied, exasperated. “I can’t tell you how proud I am of him.”

“Well why didn’t you say that to him, instead of saying that he should have his head examined for going to school in the East?”

“Because I don’t know how to talk to him. With his brothers we could go out and play football or I could teach them boxing. Alex isn’t into sports, and I don’t know anything about his kind of music. His answers to the nickname “girlfriend,” and for the past year or so it seems like he has this whole other secret life. Now, ever since he’s started going out with Isabel he’s changing even more. I don’t know who he is anymore.”

“Don’t tell me you’re going to blame this on Isabel,” Gloria gasped. “After all she’s done for Alex, how she took care of him while he was ill, the things she’s done for all of us? I don’t know of any other teenager who tries so hard to get along with parents, both us and her own.”

“I know, I know. She’s the best thing that has ever happened to him. It just seems so sudden. Last summer we were going camping, and this summer he’s making plans to move away.”

Gloria softened her voice and moved to sit next to him on their bed. “Alex is growing up, he’s changing from being our son into being his own adult. You had better come to grips with that, or we’ll lose them.”

“We’re not going to lose them, their teenagers, they still need us.”

“They may want us, but they do not need us. When you were in high school you had a paper route. They have started their own company and made sixty thousand dollars this summer,,,”

“Sixty, what happened to the twenty five they had?”

“You didn’t listen to a word they said tonight, did you? They have their second contract. Their company is up and running. With their grades they could test out of their senior year of high school and move to Boston tomorrow. Don’t take them for granted.”

Charles sighed and flopped back on the bed with his hands behind his head.

Gloria glared at him, with her hands on her hips. “Do I need to say the words?” she demanded.

Charles stood and with a sigh walked to the closet. He pulled a pillow and blanket from the top shelf and headed down for the couch.

**********
Alex took Isabel’s hand as they entered the Crashdown. Alex was surprised that despite the fact that it was nearly closing time almost all of the gang was there. Alex watched as Ava and Maria hung decorations.

“What’s this all about?” Alex asked timidly.

“We haven’t had a dance since the prom,” Maria explained.

“Seems we’re overdue,” Ava added.

“Have a seat Sweetie,” Isabel asked. “I’ll be right back.” She followed Maria into the back to see if the kitchen was still open. To her dismay she saw Michael scouring the grill.

“Need anything Isabel?” Liz asked as she took the food from the sandwich table, wrapped it, and placed it in the walk-in cooler.

“I was hoping to get something for Alex before you put everything away.

“There’s plenty of turkey here, how about a sandwich?” Liz replied.

“What happened?” Michael asked. “I figured the two of you would be stuffed on Chinese food?”

“Well, we had some parent problems,” Isabel replied disappointed.

“So two then,,,” Liz asked carefully.

“What?” Isabel answered.

“Well I figured that if Alex was too upset to eat, you didn’t eat either.”

Isabel nodded, “Thanks.”

Liz stacked the sandwiches on a plate, cut them into four halves, and added a handful of chips. “There, no problem.” As she handed the plate to Isabel she added softly, “Maybe we can get together tomorrow and talk about our project?”

“Which one?” Isabel answered. “My female problem or my brother problem?”

“Actually, both.”

Isabel returned to the front and placed the plate on the end of the counter. She went to the soda fountain and poured drinks for herself and Alex. She looked at the table where Alex was talking to Ava.

“So I was wondering Tess?” Alex asked. “I don’t mean to pry, but how does it feel to be called Tess?”

Ava looked at him a moment before replying. “I’ve pretty much gotten used to it. I don’t have to try as hard to react to the name when someone calls out to me.” She paused, “But in answer to your real question, I have it better now that I ever had it before. I am starting to feel that I really fit in. I have a boyfriend, and I’m part of a real family now. Yea, every so often I feel a little cornball, but considering the way I used to live, and what happened to Zan, I have it made.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” Alex said with a smile.

“Well thanks,” Ava replied, “And happy birthday.” Ava noticed Alex grimace at the mention of his birthday. “What’s wrong?”

“Oh nothing,” Alex paused. “I just don’t like this whole birthday thing. I don’t want a big fuss.”

“Well let me tell you something Opie,” Ava said with a smile to take the sting out of her words, “I think it must be great to know where you came from, when you were born, your parents right there. I don’t have a birthday. I don’t know if I hatched in the summer or winter, I’m not even sure what year it was in. All I remember about the day I was hatched is that I fell out of my pod face first into a sewer. You have some wonderful friends. Let them show you that they care.”

“Thanks Tess,” Alex replied with a smile. He watched Isabel approach the table holding a tray. “I sometimes forget how blessed I am.”

“Besides,” Ava added, “I’ve heard about the famous Alex Whitman,,,”

“Famous?” Alex questioned.

“Sure, I heard about you at the prom, dancing with the four hottest girls in the school at the same time. You are the envy of the entire school. I want my shot at you tonight.”

“You don’t let that girl put any ideas into your head,” Isabel warned Alex. “Stand in line Tess,” Isabel said with a grin. “I get him first.”

Maria looked at Liz, “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to remind him of what he’s missing,” Liz responded.

“Liz, you’re not going to,,,” Maria asked, looking as if Liz had lost her mind.

“Oh no! He’s still coming back on my terms, or he’s not coming back at all. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to play fair.”

Liz walked over and grabbed Max, dragging him to the window. “I need you to help me with the blinds.”

“You don’t have any blinds,” Max explained patiently.

“That’s why I need you. You know how these parties go, they are one of the few chances you guys get to be yourself.” She pointed to the window. “Kind of hard to do with the entire street watching.”

“Oh,” Max replied. He reached up and made a motion as if he was pulling down a window shade. As his hand lowered the window turned an opaque grey. He then walked over to the door and sealed it with a burst of power.

Liz walked over to him. She looked up to him with hooded eyes. She leaned in close and said breathlessly, “You’re on parole Max, just for tonight. I want things to be like they used to be.” She kissed him softly.

“So, what do you need me to do next?” Max asked, drowning in her eyes.

“I need help getting the guys changed.”

Maria sat at the table next to Tess, and watched as Isabel and Alex finished their chips. She reached and grabbed one.

“Hey!” Isabel complained. “I’m still hungry.”

“You’re hungry,” Maria rebutted. “I thought these were for Alex.”

Isabel looked at Alex and smiled, and saw Maria snag another chip.

“I’ll fix that,” Isabel muttered reaching for the Tabasco. She covered the chips with the hot sauce, and while she was at it, she emptied the rest of the bottle into her coke.

“Hey!” Alex complained, pointing at the now toxic chips. “I’m still hungry.”

“Don’t worry Sweetie, there are plenty of snacks, and I have a special treat for you later.”

“I hope so,” Alex said with a pout.

“So tell me,” Maria asked. “How did tonight end up being a formal?”

“Well,” Isabel explained, “Last time Alex stripped for me. Since I’m not going to strip for him,,,” “At least not here,,,” “And because I’m not going to let anyone else strip for him, that leaves dress up.”

Isabel watched as Maria and Ava continued talking, “Sweetie,” Isabel asked coyly, “Do you remember what happened the last time we were sitting here?”

“Do you mean when you got the letter, panicked, and grabbed my leg?” Alex asked as he took a drink of his soda.

“Oh Sweetie, I love it when you act so clueless, I didn’t panic,” Isabel teased, as she reached and gave Fred a big squeeze.

Alex choked on his drink, and soda sprayed from his mouth and nose.

“Oh my God!” Maria exclaimed, assuming the worse. “Liz, give me some water, Alex drank Isabel’s paint thinner by accident.”

Isabel watched the ruckus with a smile on her face. “Don’t worry about Alex,,,”

Maria wiped Alex’s chin and helped him take a sip of water. “If I ever start to crave this stuff I’ll kill someone.”

Isabel interrupted, “He just has to get used to it, that’s all.” She calmly sat back as both Maria and Liz tried to help Alex.

Michael approached to see what the commotion was about. “Get away from me,” Maria hissed and threw her towel at him.

“What did I do this time?” he asked.

“Does it matter?” Maria retorted.

Isabel returned to the front of the restaurant after dressing Liz and Maria, just as the music started. The first person she saw was Amy. “Come on into the break room,” Isabel said. “The dress code tonight is formal, and we have to get you changed.”

“Isabel, I didn’t bring anything to change into, and unless you consider a Crashdown uniform to be formal, why do you want me in there?”

“Amy, as the newest member of the ‘I know an alien’ club, you don’t need to bring a dress. Now come on, I’ve spent the past several days planning your look.”

Isabel waved a single finger over Amy’s eyes and lips and expertly applied just the right amount of make up. “Okay now, stand still and close your eyes for a minute. This is going to be a pretty radical change.”

“Radical?” Amy asked doubtfully.

“Well,” Isabel explained waving her hand from Amy’s head to her feet, “It’s Vera Wang, which is pretty radical for Roswell, but it’s the kind of dress that every woman should be able to wear at least once. Okay, open your eyes.”

Amy looked down at her dress. It was made of black fabric, interwoven with metallic threads that made it shimmer in the light. “Isabel?” Amy asked, her voice bordering on panic, “Where’s the rest of my dress?” Amy looked at herself in the break room mirror. She saw a halter dress, with a deeply plunging neckline, and backless to the waist. The hem of the dress fell just above her knee with the exception of the outside of her left leg, which was slit almost all the way to her hip. “Isabel, I can’t possibly wear a dress like this,,,”

Maria marched into the break room, “Isabel, what are you doing with my mother in,,,” her question died on her lips as she saw the way her mother was dressed.

“Mom, what is this? You can’t possibly be thinking of going out there dressed like that!”

“Maria,” Amy tried to say, “there’s no way I’m going,,,”

Maria rolled right over her mother. “Isabel! Why the hell did you put my mom in a sex dress? Look at it; I’ve seen Pam Troy wear more than that. She’s my mom for crying out loud, she’s not supposed to look sexy, it’s not as if she can, or has any reason to,,,”

“Now wait just a minute,” Amy protested, not liking some of the things her daughter was saying. “I’ve seen you go out many times in outfits that look like they carry the Pam Troy designer label, so don’t talk to me about what I wear.”

Maria continued on as if Amy wasn’t there. “It’s a sex dress! She looks like a slut! There’s only one reason she would be seen in public in a dress like that, and she doesn’t do that anymore, in fact she hasn’t done that for years. She doesn’t even want to anymore, she’s,,, she’s,,, to old for that stuff.”

“I think she looks fantastic,” Isabel countered, “And you should be thankful that she does. I don’t know another mother from Roswell high who could pull that look off.”

“Mom, no offence, but you must be having a stroke or something, thinking you can wear this. You’re too old and wrinkled to wear something like this.”

“Old? Wrinkled? I’ll have you know I work out three,,,” Amy blasted back, taking insult at some of Maria’s more outrageous comments.

“Aaaggghhh,” Maria gasped. “Where’s her bra? And look at how high that slit is.” Maria turned away from Isabel and her amused expression and challenged Amy, “Are you wearing panties?”

Before waiting for a response Maria turned her wrath back on Isabel. “She’s not wearing any underwear. No one wants to look at her saggy boobs or her fallen ass.

“Saggy!” Amy exclaimed. “Fallen? I’ll have you know that there isn’t anything on my body that is loose, saggy, wrinkled, or anything other that hot. And as far as my boobs go, even at twice your age I’ll put my boobs up against any one of your friends,,,” she looked at Isabel, “Well, almost anyone.”

“What is going on back here, we can hear you all the way,,,” Jim’s protest died on his lips as he entered the break room and saw Amy. Isabel was relieved to see that Tess had got his outfit just right. He was dressed in a brilliant white topcoat with tails. The coat was piped with sequins, which caught the light and sparkled. Jim set the end of the cane he was holding down on the floor and rested his hands on top of it, just like in the old movies. He had eyes only for Amy. Isabel turned back to look at Amy, who was staring at Jim, her hand on her chest.

“Mom? Mom!” Maria waved her hand in front of Amy’s face, snapping her out of her reverie.

Amy slowly approached Jim, forgetting there was anyone else in the room. “What do you think Jim, do you think I should wear this dress?”

“Amy,” Jim replied, his voice husky. “I know better that to try to tell you what to do, but if you would wear it for just one dance with me, I could die a happy man.”

Amy made her mind up in an instant. “One dance?” she took Jim by the hand. “You’re mine until daybreak.”

Maria turned back to Isabel. “You did this to me because of my ‘paint thinner’ comment, didn’t you?”

Isabel almost did a happy dance as she watched the couple exit the room. “I did this because I want to see the two of them together, especially since the way Amy found out our secret almost broke them up. But if you want to think this is all about you, go for it,” she added with an almost sinister grin on her face.

**********
Tess walked up to Kyle. She ran her hands along the collar of his leather jacket. “So Buddha Boy, have you decided what you want to wear yet?”

“Yea, black on black with a touch of western, you?”

“About that, I have a favor to ask of you.”

“Yea, what do you want?”

“Well, I’m not complaining, but it’s been a while since I’ve been able to cut loose and be myself, ya know?”

Kyle looked at the locked doors and the opaque windows. “Well, I think now is as good a time as any. Go for it.”

After dressing Kyle, Tess waved her hand in front of herself, changing herself back into Ava, piercings, tattoos, short blue hair and all. She decided to go Goth, wearing a long flowing black dress and heavy black makeup.

Kyle held out his arm, “Shall we?”

Ava wrapped her arm in his, “We shall.”

**********
Isabel turned and found Alex waiting for her. He looked dashing in his tux. Unlike at the prom, this time he was wearing a red shirt, in a shade that matched Isabel's dress. The exact dress she was wearing in the dream that opened her eyes to just how wonderful a guy he was. Some things never change though, his shirt had a stand-up collar.

"You seem to have provided everything but the neck tie," Alex teased.

Isabel pulled him close and started kissing down the side of his face. "No tie,,," she worked her way back to the special place below his ear. "I want to be able to get to your neck." While unbuttoning another button on his shirt, she used her other hand to pull his shirt to one side.

“Izzy,” Alex sighed. “The bite mark,,,”

“What bite mark?” Isabel whispered.

“The bite mark from the back yard. It’s still there. Everyone will see it,” he reached for his collar so she couldn’t open it more.

“I want everyone to see it,” Isabel replied, her voice clouded by lust. “I want everyone to know that you’re mine.”

Alex gave up on his collar and forgot about everything that had happened tonight as she began to kiss and bite his neck. He reached down and cupped Isabel’s bottom, pulling her more tightly to him. He started kissing his way down her neck. “What happened to your bra?”

“What?” Isabel asked breathlessly.

“You showed it to me earlier. You can’t be wearing it now, not with this neckline. Where is it? I want it. I want you to give it to me. I want to have it, to feel it, to touch something that was so close to you.”

“It’s gone Sweetie, I still had it on when I zapped my clothes into this dress.”

“Where’s your heart?”

“I,,, ahhh,,,”

“Tell me Izzy, I want to know. I want know about all of your secrets and all of your secret places.”

“I moved it to my panties.”

“Give them to me.”

“What! My heart?”

“No, your panties.”

“What is it about my panties? If you keep taking them I won’t have any left. I’ll have to walk around naked all the time.”

“Why not, just the two of us would know. I want that, to know there’s nothing under your skirt. Every time I look at you I know your ready, someday, ready for me. You want that also, you love driving me crazy. So give them to me.”

“Sweetie? Haven’t you been listening to me all this time? I have been ready for you. I wasted so much time trying to keep you away, but you melted my defenses and now I will always be waiting for you, for more.” Isabel reached down and touched her hip, then her neckline. She then looked Alex in the eyes and moved her hand back to her hips.

“What are you doing?” Alex asked.

“I moved my heart to the lining of the bodice.” She held out her hand and opened it slowly, revealing a small red garment, the perfect match to her dress and his shirt.

Alex eyes opened wide as her realized what she held in her hand.

“What’s the matter Sweetie, were you bluffing? Did you think I would say no to you? You must realize by now that I will do anything for you.” Isabel stepped closer to him, if that was possible. “I love it when you tell me what you want from me, when you make my dreams come true.”

“No my love, our dreams are in your realm,,,” he reached and took the fabric. “Still warm, I can smell your perfume.” He stepped back a bit and started to carefully fold the garment thankful that she preferred a full back, sheer but full. “But I am the master of imagination.” He looked into her eyes intently then added, “And I never bluff.” Alex tucked the folded garment into his jacket breast pocket.

“Oh no!” Isabel exclaimed, aghast.

“Perfect match,” Alex added, patting it smooth.

“You’re not going out there like that,,,”

“They look just like a hanky,,,”

“With my panties where everyone can see them,,,”

“I sure hope no one sneezes,” Alex concluded with a grin. “I promise you Izzy, life with me will never be boring.”

“Hummm, hummm! If you kids are done with that,” Jim interrupted, “I have got a dance to get to.”

Alex at least had the good graces to blush as he walked out to the restaurant. Isabel just looked Jim in the eye and smiled.

‘That girl is going to be the death of me,’ Jim thought as he followed them back to his waiting date.

Continued next

Posted: **Fri Sep 02, 2005 3:13 pm**

Paul just a quick heads up...
its not all here. It chopped off some of it.

you need to check it out and see what all is missing and to ad the rest in another post. This post is full.

Rhonda Your faithful beta LOL

Posted: **Fri Sep 02, 2005 8:16 pm**

The teens took turns picking music, so every couple got to dance to at least a couple of their favorite songs. Liz and Max danced to almost every song. When there was a lull in the music, they both played slow ballads, allowing them to keep their hands on each other. These selections were okay with Michael. Although he was unable to dance, he was willing to stand on the dance floor and hold Maria tight during the slow numbers. Kyle and Tess just went with the flow, while Amy and Jim were willing to dance to anything, when they weren’t busy throwing cold water on the couples during the belly rubbing tunes. Jim especially liked the Mo-town set that Amy selected. He stood against the wall with Max and Michael watching in delight as Amy taught Isabel, Liz, Ava, Alex and Kyle some of the dances from her teenage years. Maria was hiding in the kitchen. She had initially complained about Amy doing the ‘crawl’ while wearing her sex dress, but she became totally mortified when Amy started doing the ‘mashed potato’.

Isabel, not to be outdone, grabbed Alex and showed everyone some of the new moves that they had been working on, and then to prove that they weren’t out of touch with the dances their friends were doing, they showed everyone how to do the lawnmower. Alex got his fill of snacks, without Tabasco sauce this time, including a slice of Amy’s key lime pie that Isabel was able to rescue from Kyle. She made sure that Kyle didn’t know that there was a second pie in the walk-in.

Towards the end of the evening, Kyle redeemed himself in Isabel’s eyes. He played ‘Let Me In’ by ‘Save Ferris’. Isabel and Alex both recognized the song from the first note of the guitar intro. Alex was talking to Maria and Liz when he felt a wave of love envelop him. He stopped in mid breath, his conversation forgotten. He stood upright, his head extended and his eyes closed, as if he had received an electric shock. Alex slowly let out his breath as a quiet moan, and walked into Isabel’s waiting arms. They held each other so tight it was amazing that they were able to breathe. In contrast to their reactions to the rest of the songs, the young couple settled for holding each other.

“What are you thinking Sweetie?” Isabel asked, intrigued by the feeling of pure pleasure that she felt rolling over her.

“I’ll never tell,” Alex teased.

Isabel imagined that he felt the same way that she did. The unfortunate start to the evening had pushed them closely together, and the evening had turned intimate at Frazier Woods. She imagined that he was as turned on as she was, after all they had been close dancing most of the night, with no bra and her panties still in his pocket. She rummaged a bit, trying to figure out what he was thinking. “Oh my God!!”

“You can see that, can’t you?”

While she had been thinking of all that things that she was going to do to Alex in the near future, Isabel suddenly was able to see what Alex was thinking. She was sitting on a swing, and he was pushing her higher and higher. Her skirt was flapping and her hair was flowing wildly in the breeze.

“Do you remember when that was? We were in the eighth grade.”

Isabel did remember. It was the day of her first date. She had been invited to a football game by one of the players, and she was almost broken hearted when he never showed to pick her up after school. Alex had rescued her, taking her to the playground swing set. She had protested that she was too old to swing, but Alex sat her in the seat and started pushing.

“How can this be Sweetie? That isn’t a usual flash of your memories, I’m seeing what you’re thinking.”

“Too bad you can’t see what I’m looking at. I don’t think you have ever been as beautiful as you are tonight, except maybe for that day in the playground.”

“I wasn’t beautiful then, I didn’t know as much about clothes and make-up.”

“No Izzy, you were laughing, and you were happy, because of something I did. I know now that it was because you were being yourself. You weren’t hiding, you weren’t trying to be friends with people who would never care to get to know the real you. You were sitting on a swing, and you didn’t have a care in the world, and you have never been more beautiful.”

Isabel was now in her own memories, thinking back on how that interlude ended. She saw the car pull up and heard the horn blow. She leapt off the swing and shouted a word of thanks to Alex over her shoulder as she ran off, only this time she heard him wish her a good time. She also heard him sniff down a quiet sob, the first of many she would cause over the next several years. Isabel took a step back from Alex as her tears started to flow. She felt Alex change gears from browsing past memories to caring for her in the present.

“Izzy, what’s wrong?” he asked desperately. He didn’t notice as their friends quickly gathered to see what had upset their golden girl.

“Did you see that?” Isabel asked.

“Of course I did, it was my memory after all,” Alex teased. “The way you were laughing, the way your hair was flying in the breeze, it is one of my happiest memories of our childhood.”

“No, after that, the way I treated you. I dumped you as if you meant nothing to me. A dumb jock blew his horn and I came running. I don’t know who was worse, the stupid football hero, or me for responding to his arrogance.” In her mind she had already decided.

Kyle started to say something in defense of jocks when he was swatted in the back of the head by Maria. Turning towards her he whispered, “You’re not my sister yet, you can’t do that to me.” This comment led to an immediate second swat to the back of his head, this time from Ava. She just looked at him with her eyebrow raised, daring him to question her right to discipline him.

Alex reclosed the distance between himself and Isabel and took her face in his hands, forcing her to look him in the eyes. “I don’t remember any of that, so this stupid jock must be one of your memories, and I bet you’re being extra hard on yourself as usual.”

Kyle received an additional swat for good measure. He turned towards Ava, “I didn’t do a thing,” he protested innocently.

“Good, you’re learning,” was all she had to say.

“You’re hanging out with Maria too much,,,” which earned him a fourth swat, this time from the little blond bombshell herself. He turned to Michael for support, but he saw Michael holding up his hands in surrender. Obviously Kyle was in this one all by himself.

“Izzy, I want you to listen to me very carefully.” He stared into her eyes intently, waiting until he had her full attention. “You have to stop doing this, living in this personal version of your past. Every time you look back you see the worst in yourself, no matter how happy the moment was. I want you to remember how happy you were on the swing. The night I was hurt, I want you to remember that it was the first time we spent the night together. The night,,, Ava joined us, I want you to remember that it was the night we all put aside our differences and came together for each other. I want you to remember that we are going to spend the rest of our lives together. Okay?”

Isabel nodded in agreement. She stepped back, “Some boyfriend you are.”

Alex raised his eyebrows in question, willingly setting himself up for the coming burn. He knew that she would have been a little embarrassed after his discourse and he expected her to respond with a little dig of her own.

“I spent the entire evening on you. I bathed, wore your favorite perfume, and put on my special ‘boyfriend’s birthday’ undies,,,” she looked around the room with a big grin on her face, playing the crowd to get the chorus of hoots and hollers that she expected. Even the older couple joined in the revelry. Although Jim had occasional doubts about anyone’s ability to stand up to Isabel, he knew and trusted Alex. Jim and Amy both knew that this was the most responsible of the four teenage couples.

Alex, playing his part, looked flustered. “Clean is good,,,” he said, making a show of patting his chest, trying to calm his rapidly beating heart.

Isabel’s eyes opened wide as she realized the double meaning in his gesture. While everyone else saw him patting his chest, she saw him caressing his ‘hanky’. “If you think you’re going to get to me that easy, you have another thing coming.”

“Go for it,” he replied. “I will get you back in the end.”

“I made sure my make-up was perfect, got all dressed up, just for you. Then I took you out, letting you drive by the way,” she added, putting her hands on her hips. “I feed you dinner,,,”

“Yea,” Alex interrupted. “About dinner, something must of come up,,,” more hoots and catcalls. “Because I don’t remember a thing about it.” “I don’t remember anything that went wrong, just that you were with me all evening.”

Isabel looked at the floor while the noise continued, shaking her head and planning her next move. “After dinner I took you to Frazier Woods, where I gave you my,,,” she paused for effect, “present.”

“Way to go Whitman,” Kyle shouted over the cheers and whistles, bringing down the wrath of Liz, Maria, and Ava this time. He put his hands up to defend himself. “What, I know they’re just kidding.”

Alex had the good grace to blush. What else could he say? He had no intention of trying to explain to his lifelong girlfriends what he was doing with a leopard skin ‘pouch’.

Michael leaned over to Max and said quietly, “If Kyle keeps going at this rate, I may make it out of here in one piece.”

“Amazing,” Max replied. “First time for everything.”

“Then I brought you here, fed you an admittedly small slice of Amy’s famous Key Lime Pie,” Isabel turned and glared at Kyle, “That I special ordered just for you,,,”

“Great, it’s unanimous,” Kyle admitted in defeat. “Everyone hates me.”

“I danced with you all night, fast songs that got everything I have moving, and slow songs that let me rub all over you. I spent all night, and my best stuff, trying to seduce you,,,”

“Oh, that hurt,” Jim said to Amy, as the cheers rang out again.

“And how do you see me? As a little girl riding on a swing? Yup, some boyfriend you are.”

Alex just looked at her and smiled.

Amy whispered to Jim. “Well she took her best shot, and she didn’t spook him.”

“Yea,” Jim replied, reaching for her hand. “He’s growing up. He’s growing into the only man who will be able to handle her.”

“Handle her,” Amy demanded. “Do you think women need to be handled?”

“No, no,” Jim replied, never taking his eyes off the show in front of them. “I mean that in a good way. You know Isabel, if he doesn’t rise up to her challenge, she’ll roll right over him. And I definitely want to see them together.”

“Why Jim,” Amy sighed, molding herself to his side, “That’s the nicest thing I’ve heard in a long time. You really care for them all don’t you? I’m going to have to talk to Isabel about keeping this dress.”

“Hummm,” was all that Jim could manage in response.”

“Well,” Alex finally replied. “Would it help if I said I was trying to look up your skirt?”

“Alex!” she exclaimed. “I was in the eighth grade.” Her voice settled. “No Sweetie, you weren’t a pervert then anymore than you are now.”

Alex reached for her hand, leading her to the far side of the room. “Well, let me explain something that is the same then as now. You were happy, and your smile could have lit this room.” This was met with a chorus of sighs from the onlookers. He stopped with her in front of a chair. “Have a seat, please. Another thing that will never change, I knew, even then. Excuse me just a minute.” Alex walked backwards towards where Ava was, at the ‘music’ table. “From the first moment I saw you, I knew you were the only one there would ever be for me.”

He turned and consulted with Ava. She reached up and waved her hand as the lights dimmed. The ceiling fans turned into mirror balls, reflecting several small spotlights throughout the room. She held her hand over a CD and the soft sound of Shania Twain’s, “From This Moment On,” filled the air.

Alex approached Isabel as Shania sang the introduction.

I do swear that I'll always be there.
I'd give anything and everything and I will always care.

He stopped in front of her, bowed, and held out his hand in invitation. “Miss Evans, would you give me the pleasure of this dance.”

She took his hand. “Why Mr. Whitman, I would be honored.” They strutted to the center of the room as the intro continued.

Through weakness and strength, happiness and sorrow,
For better or worse, I will love you with every beat of my heart.

Alex stepped in close and placed his right hand on the soft spot just above her hip, as he took her other hand in his and raised it elbows bent, to their shoulders. Isabel settled her free lower arm on top of his upper right arm and cupped his shoulder with her hand. She pulled their joined hands in closer so she could kiss his fingertips, then she rested her head in the crook of his neck.

From this moment, life has begun,
From this moment, you are the one,
Right beside you, is where I belong,
From this moment on.

The music started, and Alex led Isabel in a modern four-step waltz. Alex led Isabel, starting slowly. They stayed in one place until the end of the first verse.

From this moment, I have been blessed,
I live only, for your happiness,
And for your love, I'd give my last breath,
From this moment on.

“I bet you think this is cornball,” Kyle whispered loudly to Ava.

“No way Buddha Boy,” Ava answered. Every woman wants to be able to dance like that.”

As the second verse started, Alex opened the space between them and led her into larger steps. They started to swirl around the room, taking the entire floor.

I give my hand to you with all my heart,
Can't wait to live my life with you I can't wait to start.
You and I will never be apart,
My dreams, came true, because, of you.

The music continued to increase in intensity. Alex looked at Isabel and raised his eyebrows in a silent invitation. She answered with a nod. Alex carefully took his right hand from Isabel’s hip and stepped back, her left hand sliding down his arm until she released him. Maintaining his hold on her other hand, he bowed and raised it to his lips, kissing it gently.

“Oh boy,” Jim observed to Amy, “There they go.”

Amy leaned close to Jim and replied, “I heard they ruled the prom, but I’ve never seen them.”

“They make it look so natural,” Jim added. “You’re going to enjoy this.”

As he stood, he gave a gentle tug to her hand. Isabel twirled, as Alex lowered his hand to the level of her hip. When he felt her finish the first twirl, he released her hand, allowing his hand to caress her hip as she twirled a second time, landing in his arms, with her arms on his shoulders. Alex took control of her hip again as Isabel slid her right hand down his arm. They ended up back in the starting position, facing each other. Alex pressed into her hip with the heel of his right hand as he raised his left, signaling Isabel to spin out to arms length. After a four count he raised his hand again causing her to start to spin back into him, but he stepped into the spin and caught her hip stopping her with their joined hands in front of them. They stepped forward in a circle around the room, gazing deeply into each other’s eyes.

From this moment, as long as I live,
I will love you, I promise you this,
There is nothing, I wouldn't give,
From this moment on.

“I know, I know,” Michael said dejectedly.

“What’s that Michael,” she asked with concern.

“I’ll never be able to dance like that,” he answered.

Maria decided to give him a break. “Spaceboy, do you see how hard Isabel’s working? What makes you think I’d be able to do that once you put your hands on me?”

Michael didn’t say a word; he simply pulled Maria tighter into his arms as they watched Alex and Isabel burn up the entire floor.

Alex pushed her hip, this time with his fingertips, maintaining their hold on their front hands. Isabel spun away, again at arms length. This time, when Alex tugged her hand, signaling his desire for her to twirl back into his arms, he released his hold on her hand so that as she finished the second spin his left hand was on the small of her back. As he pulled her in close, her arms came up to rest on his shoulders. His other hand came up to hold her between the shoulder blades as he stopped moving and spread his legs. Isabel planted her left leg between his, allowing her right foot to slide forward as he guided her backward into the classic dip. Isabel reached back with her head, exposing her long graceful neck to him and shook her head slightly to bring out the apple blossom scent of her hair.

Instrumental

“How do they do that?” Max wondered out loud.

“Simple, several video tapes and a lot of practice,” Liz replied.

“Hummm, can you get one of those tapes?” he asked.

Liz just smiled.

Isabel came back up into his arms, their bodies touching. Alex indulged her and for several moments they stayed together, simply turning to the music. Isabel smiled as she felt Alex move his hand from the small of her back to her hip. He was getting ready to lead. Alex straightened the fingers of his left hand, forming a pin for her hand to cup. As he raised his hand she was ready to spin before she felt pressure on her hip from the heel of his hand. Alex spun her, but kept her in close. As she finished the first rotation he lowered his hand, signaling her to stop. He immediately raised his hand again and she spun back into position. Alex stopped her by catching her right hip. They ended up next to each other, but they only had eyes for each other.

You're the reason I believe in love,
And you're the answer to my prayers from up above,
All we need is just the two of us,
My dreams, came true, because, of you.

“Happy birthday Sweetie,” Isabel said quietly, taking advantage of the pause as they walked forward.

“This is the best birthday I’ve ever had,” Alex replied tenderly. He pulled Isabel in front of him and lowered both hands to her hips. Isabel raised her arms to her favorite position, both forearms on his shoulders, her hands holding him behind his neck. She inhaled his scent, causing a tingle to course through her body. But instead of resting her head on his shoulder, she maintained eye contact.

“Come on, you can be honest with me,” Isabel teased. “Dinner was a disaster, and Kyle ate all your pie.”

“Kyle who?” Alex teased, sending her a tidal wave of love through their connection. “You’re the only one I have eyes for tonight.”

“Sweetie, this is going to be the first of many special times we spend together, and I promise you, I will make every one better than the one before it.”

“Really,” he said laughing gently. “I don’t know how much more I can take. You’re going to give me a heart attack.”

“You better not,” she rebutted. “I have plans for you.”

“You have plans, wait a minute, I’m leading.”

From this moment, as long as I live
I will love you, I promise you this,
There is nothing, I wouldn't give,
From this moment
I will love you, as long as I live,
From this moment on.

Alex slid his hand back to her hip,,,

“Oh no you don’t!” Isabel stopped dancing and locked her hands behind Alex’s neck. Her eyes lost focus as she pulled him close for a long overdue kiss. They didn’t hear the last song, or notice the group cleaning up.

Amy looked deep into Jim’s eyes; “I haven’t had this much fun in a long time.”

“I know,” he replied. “I don’t want this night to end.”

She gave him a special smile, “It doesn’t have to.”

Jim ran his hand through his hair. “That means a lot to me Amy, but you know we can’t,” he said, looking around the room. “We have more than just us to think about. If we don’t go home, I doubt if any of them will either.”

Amy lowered her head with a sigh, “I know.” She visibly switched back into mom mode. “Well, I’ll make sure Michael gets home, you can drop off Max, but what are we going to about those two?” she asked indicating Isabel, who was sitting in Alex’s lap, having a midnight snack.

Jim walked over to the couple, “Alex, I’m going to call your house in thirty minutes to make sure you two get home alright.”

“That’s okay Sheriff,” Isabel replied sweetly. “You don’t have to do that.”

Jim looked Isabel in the eyes, “Yea, right.”

**********
Alex felt Isabel turn apprehensive as they approached their front door. More importantly, he felt something he had never felt in her before. He felt her lose confidence. “Izzy? What’s wrong?”

“I don’t want to go in there,” she replied.

Alex stopped the moment he heard what she said and turned towards her. He reached up and touched her cheek as gently as he could. “Talk to me.”

Isabel leaned her head, deepening his caress. “I,,, at the restaurant,,, I was pretty hard on your father.”

Alex felt an overwhelming wave of panic overtake his mate, which he immediately beat back with everything he had. He removed his hand from her face and pulled her into his arms.

“Alex, what happens if he throws me out? Where will I go? I can’t go back to Max. Despite the way he acted tonight, he is still out of control.”

“Izzy,” Alex said calmingly, stroking her hair. “My parents love you. They aren’t going to throw you out. It’ll never happen.”

“But what happens if they do, Sweetie? What would I do if something happens?”

“No Izzy, the question isn’t what would you do, but what would we do. We’ve already decided the answer to that question during one of our past crises. I don’t remember if it was your crisis or mine, but we agreed, where one goes, so goes the other.” He pulled back to look in her eyes. “You are my mate. No one is going to keep us apart,,,”

“But they’re your parents, and I still have to deal with mine, although my mom knowing about the real me has been a big help,” she asked, looking to him for an answer.

“Isabel, you’re forgetting something. I’m eighteen, and you’re going to be eighteen in less than two months. We both have jobs and futures. We have money. If we have to, we can have our own place tomorrow, and then we can pay our own way through college. We’re better off than we were just a couple of months ago, and in a couple of more months, we will be better off than we are now. Izzy, no one can hurt us.”

Isabel molded herself to him, drawing on every ounce of strength and confidence she could find within him. “Come on,” she added, “Maybe I’m just imagining things. Lets get this over with.”

Alex released her, but held her hand as they walked to the door. He laughed, “Besides, who would be crazy enough to take on the two of us?”

The young couples let themselves into the house, and were slinking towards the stairs when the living room light came on. They saw Alex’s father sitting in his recliner.

“Alex?” he asked hesitantly. “Can I talk to you for a bit?”

Alex looked at Isabel, “Sorry.”

Isabel’s expression didn’t change, and she didn’t release his hand. Instead she led him into the living room. “I’m okay now, where you go, I go.”

Isabel’s actions weren’t lost on Charles. Watching her made what he had to do easier.

Alex turned to make sure Isabel was comfortable. He moved a pillow out of the way so she could sit straight against the back of the couch. Isabel, on the other hand, didn’t pay attention to anything but Charles.

Charles took a breath, “I had a good time tonight, thank you for inviting me.”

“You’re welcome,” Isabel replied. “I’m glad that you could join us,” she continued, her voice flat.

Alex started to wonder if having Isabel there was a good thing.

“I enjoyed talking to Philip tonight, talking about how dominant the big ten and big twelve sports teams are.”

Alex looked at Isabel. “Izzy, you got to help me, I need your fantastic memory. I don’t know a thing about sports.”

“That’s okay Sweetie,” as he started receiving information from her.

“I don’t know about that Pops, those two conferences include thirty three schools, but they don’t have sports locked up. On the coast you still have UCLA (University of California – Los Angeles) and USC (University of Southern California). Lets not discount schools in the Southeast, LSU (Louisiana State University) is a perpetual power house, as are both Miami and Florida State. If you want to include basketball, you have to consider Maryland. Lets talk swimming, during the last Olympics most of the US swim and diving teams came from Stanford, and just to round things out, UConn (University of Connecticut) rules women’s basketball.”

Isabel was pleased, as Charles looked confused.

“Sweetie, get off sports while you’re ahead!”

“Pops, this isn’t about sports, I’m not into sports. I don’t even have that much time for my music this summer.”

“Thanks Izzy, we’re unbeatable when we’re together.”

“No, it isn’t about sports,” Charles replied with a sigh. “Son, I was wrong tonight. I don’t even know why. Before you got there I was telling the Evans’ how proud I was that you were chosen for early admission to MIT, and how much hard work you and Isabel were doing on your company. I just felt a little embarrassed; I kept telling them you were never late for anything. Philip said that it was probably because he kept Isabel late at the office, but for some reason I couldn’t let it go.”

“Don’t worry about it Pops,” Alex said lightly, but Isabel continued to glare at Charles.

“You’re not going to make this easy for me, are you?” Charles asked, looking at her.

“No! Never where Alex is concerned. Tonight was his night.” “Sorry Sweetie, I can see the train wreck coming, but I’m not getting off the track. Not as long as you’re involved.”

“It’s okay Izzy, I’ve never seen anyone stand up to him like this before. We’ll go down in flames together.”

Charles looked at Isabel and started to laugh. “Now I can imagine how the people at the hospital felt.”

“Oh no,” Isabel replied with a smile that Charles couldn’t quite read. ”You’re family. I’ve been struggling to stay neutral. If you were a stranger, or if I thought you were deliberately trying to hurt him you would have seen a whole new side of me.”

“I hope I never see that part of you directed at me.” Charles paused a moment, “Can I say something Isabel?”

“Sure Mr. Whitman,” she replied.

“Isabel, it’s still Charles, and don’t ever change. Gloria and I still think you bring out the best in our son, and since he’s going to be on his own soon, it’s nice knowing someone’s going to be with him who’s willing to go to bat for him. But I do have to ask, you’re only seventeen. How can you be so sure?”

“I guess you can say that I have an old soul. I feel as if I’ve been searching for my soul-mate for two lifetimes. It may have taken me a while to come to accept that I have found him, but luckily for me, Alex knew the moment we met. Now that we’ve found each other, I will do anything to protect him, to protect what we are going to have together.”

Charles momentarily glanced at his son and was surprised to see the same intensity of purpose on his face.

“I would willingly kill or die for him,” Isabel continued, “And I am confident that he would do no less for me. In fact, there are days where I feel we have already gone through that.”

“Okay!” Charles exclaimed, “enough of this warrior ethos, this is Roswell after all. No matter how strange things do get here, we don’t have to worry about our teenagers waging a running battle.”

Isabel stood and leaned down to give Alex a ‘moderate’ kiss. “Make sure you stop by to tuck me in. You know how cold I get when the blankets aren’t just right.” She walked to the stairs. “Good night Charles.”

“Good night Isabel,” Charles said with a knowing chuckle. He understood what she was really saying. It was the middle of August, and no one had ever accused him of setting the air conditioning too cool.

**********
Isabel took a quick shower, careful not to wet her hair. It had been a long evening, and she did not want to spend a half hour drying and styling it. She pulled on her robe then crossed the hall and entered Alex’s room. She could hear his shower running through the partially opened door. She walked to the door and opened it a little more, allowing her to see the outline of him while he cleaned up. ‘It would be so easy,,,’ she thought, biting her lower lip, but she thought back to her momentary emotional breakdown earlier this evening, while she was looking into his thoughts. ‘Despite my show of confidence to Charles, maybe Alex is right. Maybe I’m not really ready yet, but doesn’t he realize that every time he touches my soul, like only he can, he makes me want him more?’

Isabel turned away from his bathroom door and walked to his bed. ‘No’ she decided. ‘No one is perfect, least of all me. The moment he’s ready I’ll be willing and waiting for him.’ She picked up the shirt that he had been wearing at the party and raised it to her nose. His scent overwhelmed her, and she thought of him in the next room, almost losing her resolve. She untied her robe and dropped it to the floor. She turned, facing the bathroom, as she pulled his shirt on, hoping to be caught, but no such luck. She found his shirt just long enough to cover what needed to be covered, if she moved carefully. She heard the water stop running as she buttoned the bottom several buttons and sat on his bed to wait for him. ‘Yes Sweetie, I’ll wait for you, but I reserve the right to tease you and push us along while I’m waiting.’

Alex could feel his mate’s presence in his room, explaining why he felt a need to finish his shower with icy cold water. He stepped from the shower and bumped the door so that it was almost all the way closed. He quickly finished his grooming, and stepped into his room already wearing his PJ’s. Se stopped when he saw Isabel sitting on his bed.

Isabel was closing her eyes and leaning down to take another sniff of his collar. She looked at him, “Problem?”

“No, not at all,” he replied, knocked a little off kilter.

She stood and reached for his hand. “Well, come on then, you promised to tuck me in.” As she led him out of the room he stopped to take his hanky from his jacket pocket. “What’s the matter, you don’t want to keep them?” she pouted.

“Izzy, no matter how many times we tell my mom that we can do our own laundry, she always checks out our rooms anyway. Now you may be able to talk your way out of wearing my shirt, but there is no way I’m going to get away with her finding these in my room.”

Isabel snuggled up to him, “Besides, you know you can always get them back by just asking.” Her face broke into a teasing grin, “Although, maybe I won’t wait for you to ask.” Isabel bit her lower lip and asked, “By the way, how’s that cold shower holding up?”

Alex laughed, “That cold shower wore out the moment I saw you in my shirt, just like you planned.”

Isabel led him into her room and waited while he turned down her covers. “Planned, me?” She made a show of climbing onto her bed on all fours. “Would I do a thing like that?” She asked as she rolled onto her back with a smile. She had not been at all careful at all about how she had moved.

Alex wasn’t able to move for a moment after Isabel’s little show, but he gathered his composure, gulped, and then reached for her covers. As he pulled them up to her neck he asked softly, “You enjoy this, don’t you?”

“Enjoy what Sweetie?” she asked innocently, taking his hands in hers, preventing him from pulling away.

“Teasing me like this,” he laughed, as if she didn’t know.

“Isabel pulled him down and gave him a quick kiss. “Oh no Sweetie, I’m not teasing you. A tease will turn you on and leave you hanging.” Isabel pulled his hand closer and started to kiss, lick, and bite the inside of his wrist, causing Alex to moan softly. “What have I ever done to make you think that I wouldn’t finish anything that I start?” She moved her hand to the back of his neck, pulling him down for what she considered to be a proper goodnight kiss. Moments before their lips touched she whispered, “You can consider everything I do to be foreplay.”

Alex reveled in her kiss, but he pulled back when he felt himself losing control. He gave her a final gentle kiss on the forehead before backing towards the door.

Isabel looked up at him and smiled. “Okay Sweetie, I’ll let you off easy this time. Sleep well, I’ll be waiting for you in your dreams.”

**********
Isabel looked down at herself, surprised to find that she was wearing her normal PJ’s, having expected to be in her red negligee. She looked around and found herself in the middle of a star lit field. When she turned back forward, Alex was standing there, next to his bed, the covers already turned down. He was wearing his customary tank top and boxers.

“Sweetie?” Isabel asked, unsure. “No music, dancing,,,” she looked down at her cotton garments, “Is this all you want?”

“Is this all?” he teasingly replied, “I have been told that what I want is exceptional.”

Isabel laughed at having her words repeated to her so quickly.

Alex took both of her hands in his. “Izzy, you gave me the perfect birthday, and there’s only one thing more that I can ask of you,,,”

“What’s that Sweetie?” Isabel asked, pivoting on her hips and biting her lip.

“I don’t even know if you can do this.”

“Anything that’s mine to give Sweetie, you know that.”

“I want to tuck you in and then I want to hold you. I want you to be the there with me in the morning. Can we dream about sleeping together?”

Isabel smiled at him. “Lets see what I can come up with.” She waved her hand over herself.

Alex took a sniff, “Perfume.” Another wave, “Now I can smell your apple blossom shampoo.”

“Okay Sweetie, one last thing.” She waved her hand over her PJ’s. “You know how I feel about cotton.” She was now wearing a supple pair of red satin shortie PJ’s.

Alex lifted the covers and held them as Isabel climbed into his bed. When she had settled down he climbed in behind her. Her reached over her to make sure her covers were just right. Isabel picked her head up so that he could place his lower arm in front of her pillow. As she lowered the side of her face onto his upper arm and snuggled back into him, her fragrant hair by his nose, he raised his forearm, holding her shoulders.

Isabel straightened her lower leg and moved it back so it was in front of his lower leg. “Sweetie, I can’t feel your leg.”

Alex bent his upper leg at the knee and moved it forward so that it was on top of her lower leg.

“Higher Sweetie.”

Alex raised his knee, resulting in the inside of his thigh sliding up the length of her thigh. His foot fell to the mattress on the other side of her leg, and Isabel quickly moved her upper leg to pin it in place. He reached over her waist with his upper arm, and settled his hand on her stomach.

“Sweetie, you should know by now, inside.”

Alex laughed gently as he slid his hand inside the hemline of her top. He felt Isabel roll back into him, a signal of what she wanted from him. He reached down with his hand placing it under her rib cage, just below her breast.

Isabel smiled to herself, letting him get away with the fact that his hand was a little lower than she would have liked. She rolled back to normal, pinning his hand between herself and the mattress, and drawing him in tight. “You got me Sweetie?”

Alex kissed the top of Isabel’s head, “I got you right where I want you. Good night Izzy, I love you.”

Isabel leaned down and kissed his arm, “I love you too Sweetie,” ‘And I got you to get me just where I want to be.’

TBC

Posted: **Mon Sep 05, 2005 8:35 am**

I know I have said this before but I really do enjoy this fic. I am with Pooh when she says that it is a story about all of their firsts and maybe that's why I enjoy it so much.

:

And if I know Trude then she is chomping at the bit for a new part. She is great and really keeps you going when it seems no one else cares for A/I.

Okay enough about Trude.

Just wanted to let you know that I am still reading

:

Kara

Posted: **Sat Sep 10, 2005 10:14 am**

Gazer Gets the Girl
Chapter 12 - Two Teens, Two Projects, and Loose Ends
by Stargazer_md

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

Where were we? Isabel and Alex are both trying to tie up loose ends on their individual projects before they take their road trip to Texas. Will they get everything done in time? Will their parents get in the way? Only one way to find out.

**********
Isabel arrived in the kitchen to find the entire Whitman family at the table. She took a bowl out of the cabinet and walked to the table. As she passed Alex she swatted him up the side of the head, “Don’t scratch yourself at the table. Go take a shower if you have an itch.”

“Get an early shower? Yea, right. There just isn’t enough hot water for the three of us and a girl,” Alex complained, rubbing his head.

Gloria and Charles just looked at each other and smiled.

“I suppose it’s my fault that we run out of hot water,” Isabel rebutted while pouring cereal into her bowl.

Alex took her glass and walked to the counter. “Well you figure it out. Brothers, no problems with hot water. One girlfriend, hot water shortage. You’d think we lived in a desert or something.” He poured her a glass of V-8 juice, and then without his parents noticing he topped it off with Tabasco. He put the glass back in front of her.

“Thanks Sweetie.”

“Before school starts I’ll have to put a new hot water heater in,” Alex sighed, “And you’re paying half.”

Charles had to chuckle at their little ‘adult’ time. “Hey big spender, we need a new roof while you’re at it.” He stood and got ready to leave for work. “Take care all, I won’t be home in time for dinner.”

Charles left and Gloria soon followed, after mentioning that she was meeting Diane for dinner.

“Alex, are you sure you don’t want me to stay home and work with you?”

“Well, you have plans, right?”

“I’m working with the Red Cross on a blood drive this morning, and at Daddy’s office this afternoon. But if you need me, I can cancel. This is our company, and I want to do my share of the work.”

“No, don’t cancel. The software’s here, and I’m going to be on the Blade all day making disk images. As a matter of fact, if you were here you’d probably get bored and start trying on outfits. I’d be distracted and get nothing done.”

“Okay Sweetie,” Isabel replied clearing the table. “How about we meet at the Crashdown tonight? I have influence with the cook, and I bet you I can get you grilled onions on your Will Smith burger, just like you like it.”

“Yea, I’d like that,” Alex replied with a smile, now that he had something to look forward to.

**********
Isabel followed Liz up to her room. Once they were in private she looked at her petit friend expectantly. “Do you think you can help me?”

Liz took a deep breath, “I don’t think I have any choice.” Noticing Isabel’s look of alarm she continued, “No, I don’t mean that the way it sounded. I’ve never had a ‘patient’ before, and I really wasn’t planning on having any in the future whose feelings I could hurt. I’m a little nervous, but I’m going to do everything I can do to help.”

“Liz, you’re going to be the first person in the human race to do research on someone from another planet. Don’t you think this will help you in your quest to become the head of the molecular-biology department at Harvard?” Isabel asked shyly. “I mean after me, pond scum will be easy.”

“Okay,” Liz started. “Ever since you asked me about birth control, I’ve been trying to figure out how we’re going to do this. I mean if you were,,, well like me, I’d just go to another doctor and get a second birth control prescription and give them to you.”

“You’re on the pill?” Isabel exclaimed.

“Not for the reason you think,” Liz rebutted with the start of a blush. “My cycle was totally out of control, and I was cramping so bad I had to stay home from school every month. Besides, there’s the fantastic side benefit,” she touched her face, “Clear skin.”

But I’m not like you, do you think the pill will work on me?” Isabel asked hesitantly. “And how do you know that it will protect you from,,, you know,,,” Isabel turned shy, thinking of her brothers, “Alien spermies?”

“I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty confident where I’m concerned, when the time comes, that is,” she added clinically. “The pill works by manipulating the levels of estrogen and progestin in a woman’s bloodstream, in effect tricking her body into thinking it’s pregnant. These hormones prevent fertilization in three ways. The ovaries shouldn’t release an egg during ovulation, the uterus doesn’t become receptive to implantation if by chance an egg does become fertile, and the cervical mucus becomes thickened, blocking the passage of ‘spermies’,” Liz added with a giggle at her use of Isabel’s scientific terminology.

“So in my case,” Liz continued, “I should be protected. Not even Max’s ‘one shot wonder super sperm’ can fertilize an egg that isn’t there,,, What?” she asked looking at Isabel’s arched eyebrow.

“One shot wonder?” Isabel asked.

“That bitch may be gone, but she’s not forgotten. She took something from me that can never be replaced.”

Isabel watched as Liz became upset, thinking about Max and Tess together. She decided the best thing to do was get back to the topic at hand. “How does this affect me?”

“That’s the problem,” Liz answered. “We don’t know if you have these hormones in your body, let alone what effect hormone therapy would have on you, so that’s what we’re going to try to find out.” Liz reached under her bed and pulled out a bag. “I sure am glad my father didn’t find this,” as she took out two home pregnancy test and two home ovulation test. “I don’t think he would of understood,” she added with a smile.

Isabel looked at the box, “Liz, I, ahhmm, don’t need this,” she started as her voice trailed off.

“Oh I know that,” Liz responded, dismissively.

“Now what’s supposed to mean?” Isabel asked with her hands on her hips.

“Nothing,” Liz replied as she read the instructions on the EPT box. Noticing Isabel’s silence she looked up. “What?”

“Are you saying that I’m not capable of needing one of these?” she said indignantly, lifting the other EPT box.

“Come on Isabel, this is Alex were talking about, you know, ‘never seen a boob’ Alex? We all know nothing’s going on between the two of you.”

“And how are you so sure?” Isabel asked, starting to tease a bit, now that they were talking about her favorite subject.

“Simple. He couldn’t keep something like that from ‘Ria and me. Look at last night. He was the perfect gentleman, he even coordinated his outfit with yours,,,”

Isabel almost dropped the box she was holding at the mention of Alex’s ‘hankie’.

“Alex can be so romantic, but we all know he’d pass out if he got a look at your bra strap.”

Isabel decided to let Liz believe what she wanted to. “Okay then, if my prospects with Alex are so dim, tell me why I need these. How did we get from birth control pills to home pregnancy test?”

“Well, when you asked me for help, I didn’t know where to start,” Liz explained. “So I spent some time on the internet. These two test both work by detecting different hormones in the urine stream, and while the test kits for estrogen and progestin are difficult to get anonymously, these test are both easy to use and readily available. I figured we should start with these.”

“Why two of each?” Isabel wondered.

“Because if you’re going to go through this, I will also. I’m your control,” Liz explained softly.

“Thanks Liz,” Isabel said with a smile. “That makes it easier.”

“Well you better take it while you can get it,” Liz said with a laugh. “If you need a pelvic, you’re on your own.”

“If I need a pelvic,” Isabel reminded her, “You’ll be giving it.”

The thought of the dreaded pelvic exam shocked the both of them back to the task at hand once again. “First we have the pregnancy test. The hormone it test for, Human Chorionic Gonadotrophin (hCG) elevates when you become pregnant, but the test should also detect a baseline level if it is present. The ovulation test is for the Leutenizing Hormone (LH). How long since your last period?”

“First I want to know how you remember those names,” Isabel answered. She then thought a moment “It’s been about two weeks since my last period, but that one was different. Instead of what I normally have I just spotted a little.”

What did you do about that?” Liz asked with concern.

“What can I do about it, it’s not like I can go to a doctor,” Isabel responded nervously. “Whom can I talk to? I have to admit, it’s part of the reason why I asked you to try to look into this.”

“Well, since you’re in mid cycle the ovulation test should register a spike, well above background, but we’re not getting any answers just talking about it,” Liz declared as she handed Isabel two the test.

Ten minutes later the mood in the room had changed. “You did exactly as I told you, right?” Liz asked, never doubting the answer she was going to get.

“Exactly,” Isabel replied as she looked at the four plastic sticks. “Well at least we know we’re not pregnant.”

“Yea, I guess that’s something, ” Liz answered quietly, missing Isabel’s attempt at humor.

“But we also know that I’m not a woman,” the tall one added, holding up her blank test sticks. “Not only aren’t they indicating positive, the control lines are missing. I don’t have any of the hormones they test for.”

“Hey,” Liz said soothingly. “They’re not saying you’re not a woman, they are confirming what we already knew. You’re not an average woman.”

“No Liz,” Isabel rebutted. “I wanted to find out if I was too different to use birth control pills, but I ended up finding out how much more different I really am. What happens if I’m not compatible with humans,,, with Alex. What happens if I find out I can’t give him children.” Isabel looked ready to break down. “This could destroy my future with him.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Liz exclaimed as she moved next to Isabel and put a comforting arm on her shoulder. “Alex loves you more than life itself, and nothing you can or can’t do will change that.” Liz had learned from Alex the previous night that the only way to deal with Isabel when she doubted herself was to be direct. “Do you really think so little of him, that he would be so petty?”

“No, of course not,” Isabel barked out, rising to his defense.

“Good, you remember that,” Liz said, her minding starting to shift in planning mode. Meanwhile, I’m going to get back on the internet. We have a lot more work to do. It would be so much easier if you just came with an instruction manual.”

Isabel laughed softly at the thought. “Don’t be to sure, even if I did, we wouldn’t be able to read it.”

**********
Isabel sat in ‘her’ booth at the Crashdown waiting for Alex to join her. She was munching on a basket of fries, as she had nothing for lunch but a couple of cookies before leaving the blood drive. She was so involved in working on a batch of paperwork that she didn’t notice Kyle until he slid into the booth opposite her.

“Hey, great party last night,” he said, reaching for one of her fries.

“Yea, it was great. Alex had a blast,” she added while she watched him take another fry.

“Did you see Tess?” he asked. “I don’t know where she learned to move like that.”

“Kyle,” Isabel exclaimed with growing irritation as she saw him take still another fry. “They have clubs in New York.”

Agnes stopped at Isabel’s booth, “Where did the morons at the next booth go?”

“Isabel looked up, in full Ice Princess mode. “I don’t know, it’s not my day to watch them.”

“Well who’s going to pay for this double order of fries?” Agnes moaned, looking for someone who cared.

“Give them to Kyle,” Isabel responded, not really paying attention. She reached for her calculator, but say Kyle wrap his fries in a napkin then take still another one of hers.

“Hey, what are you doing?” she asked having reached her personal breaking point.

“Simple,” Kyle replied innocently. “I’m making sure that when your fries are gone, mine will still be warm.”

Isabel looked around for sympathy, but instead found Michael and Max chuckling at Kyle’s comment.

“Just what the hell is going on around here,” Isabel exclaimed. “Since when does anyone dare think that it is safe to mess with me?” As Kyle fled with his basket of fries to the safety of the counter, she looked at each of the others in the eye.

Kyle had his back turned to her and Max wouldn’t meet her gaze, but Michael returned her look with a smile on his face. He only said one word, “Alex.”

“Alex,” Kyle repeated, spinning on his stool to face her. “Ever since you hooked up with Alex and got your needs taken care of,,,”

“And just what is that supposed to mean?” the young princess demanded, her face thunderous.

Kyle looked at his fellow antagonist for support.

“Don’t look at me,” Michael responded. “I just led you to the cliff. You decided to jump off on your own.”

“Well, whenever he’s around,,,” Kyle floundered. “You and Alex, ahhh,,,”

“What about me?” Alex asked, walking to Isabel’s booth.

“Sweetie!” Isabel exclaimed, her mood instantly changing. She leaned over for a kiss as Alex joined her in the booth.

“See!” Kyle asked of the others.

Michael looked at the sickingly sweet smile that Isabel was casting Kyle’s way and quietly advised his friend, “Kyle, I have just one thing to say to you. Quit while you’re behind.”

Isabel mentally shut Kyle out, and turned towards her boyfriend. She leaned forward and rested her chin on her hands, giving him her full attention. “So how was your day Sweetie?”

“Oh my day was horrible,” he said with a smile. “Cooped up in my room all by myself, alone, no one to talk to,,,”

“Give me a break,” Isabel teased. “Five minutes after you sat in front of your computer you forgot all about me.”

“Guilty as charged,” Alex laughed. “Not about forgetting about you, I can always sense you in the back of my mind, but I did get a lot done today. Hey, I have a family to provide for,” he added, looking at her.

“I like the sound of that,” Isabel added tenderly.

Alex paused before continuing, so as not to spoil her moment. “I’ve got everything ready for the servers, which will be waiting for us when we get back from Texas.”

“Does that mean you won’t have to do any work while we’re down there?” she asked, turning serious.

“Well, we’re going to have to bring a laptop and cell phone to support the SQL (pronounced sequel) system from the first project,” Alex answered. “But no, we won’t have to do any work on the current job.”

“Good, I’m glad that you’ll have some time to relax.” She turned back to her own work. “Sweetie, I have some paperwork for you to sign.”

“Okay, but lets order first, I’m starved,” he said, waving Maria over, as Isabel slipped out of the bench.

Maria came over and gave her newly arrived friend a smile and peck on the cheek while teasingly adding, “Come on, come on. My shift’s over and I want to get out of this fashion challenged uniform and sit down for the rest of my life.”

“I don’t know about that fashion comment Maria,” Alex rebutted, looked over to the counter. Michael seems to like you in it.

Michael started over to the booth as Maria continued, “Spaceboy? He’s an animal.” She leaned down and lowered her voice, “I caught him using his powers to raise the hem of my uniform last week. I mean give me a break. This is a place of business. I put too much of the bod on display and people will forget what they came here for,,,”

“What are you complaining about?” Michael asked his better half as he slid into the booth opposite Alex. “You told me that you never got such good tips.”

She slapped him on the shoulder; “I just said that to make you jealous.”

“Can you figure women out?” he asked Alex with a smile. “One moment she’s calling me an animal, and the next she’s trying to make me jealous.”

“Yup,” Maria instructed. “My big studly, he man, drag me off into the bushes and have your way with me, animal.”

Isabel returned, interrupting their friends. When Maria turned towards her she asked, “Will Smith and fajitas Maria, Jose has the details.”

“Drinks and fries?” Maria asked, before leaving to put in the order and change.

“Yea, for some reason I’m still hungry,” she added, glaring at the back of Kyle’s head, who was greeting Tess and guiding her into the next booth.

“Have you talked to Laurie lately?” Alex asked of Michael.

“Yea, I talked to her last night. She’s decided to sell the estate, buy something smaller without the memories, and go back to school,” Michael replied with a smile.

Isabel slid several documents in front of Alex, and handed him a pen. “Here Sweetie, these are our paychecks, I need you to counter sign them for me.”

Alex did as he was told, and then endorsed the back, as instructed. He watched in dismay as his check was whisked away before he could even read the amount.

Michael watched the process in amusement. While Isabel wasn’t looking he signaled for Max to come over, who also got Kyle to kneel on his booth and watch.

“Okay, these are several checks for our cell and internet bills that we need to pay, sign please.”

Alex signed these as well, “Izzy, about my paycheck,,,”

“Here is a check from the Cheese Factory for the new equipment down payment, endorse the back please.”

Alex signed the check and them picked it up to admire it. “Ahhh, the fruits from the sweat of my brow,,,” His comment was cut off as Isabel pulled the check from his grasp. Alex watched in dismay as it disappeared into her valise.

“Don’t get used to it Alex,” she cautioned. We already spent it. Here’s our internal purchase order and the CSC (Computer Services Corp.) order form for the PC’s involved in the Cheese Factory upgrade, sign here and here.”

“I thought we were buying direct from Dell?” Alex started to question.

“No Sweetie, you remember the woman Brody put us in touch with at his old company? She gave us end bracket pricing. That’s a better than twenty percent discount. We’re going with CSC.”

Michael was openly chuckling now, “And I thought Maria was bad.”

Alex signed this paperwork also, looking more and more confused. “About my paycheck,,,”

“What paycheck?” Isabel asked sweetly.

Michael must of had a dry throat, because he suddenly coughed, which strangely sounded like “Whipped.”

Isabel ignored her so-called brother, “This is a deposit slip, sign please.”

Alex tried again, “Izzy,,,” as he signed his life away.

Isabel took the deposit slip back before the ink was dry. She slid a twenty-dollar bill in front of him, “Here you go Sweetie, but be careful with that, you’re paying for dinner tonight.”

Isabel’s timing in mentioning dinner was perfect, as their food was ready. Agnes arrived with their meals to find Alex receiving a chorus of ‘whipped’ coughing, this time from all the guys.

Maria returned from the back and found her friends surrounded by a group of immature men acting even more juvenile that she thought possible. Her face must of registered the fact that she was going to start giving out some well deserved smacks, because the coughing died down immediately as the guys found better things to do. She pushed her way into the booth and sat next to Michael. She slid him a cold drink.

Kyle decided that he had pushed his luck as far as possible, having offended both Isabel and Maria. He took Tess by the hand and headed for the exit. “Don’t worry,” he said, calming her protest, “I know where we can get some great tacos.”

Alex put the twenty on top of the bill and slid it to the edge of the table. Agnes grabbed the payment on the way by, glanced at it, and returned to Alex’s side. She made a crooking motion with her fingers, asking for more money. Alex looked bewildered until he looked at the tab. He turned towards his girlfriend. “Izzy, are we hungry tonight?”

“What are you talking about?” she asked.

“Well,” he teased. “Two meals, three orders of fries, four drinks,,,”

“What?” she exclaimed, snatching the bill from his hand. “I don’t believe this,” she exclaimed, looking at Kyle’s back as the door closed behind him. “Kyle eats everything in sight, and then I get stuck with the bill.” She handed the check back to Alex. “Sorry Sweetie, you’re going to have to cover this.”

Alex dug his last couple of ones out of his pocket and then started counting out quarters for the tip. “Kyle eats everything and then I get stuck with the bill,” he repeated sarcastically under his breath. “Well if she’s the one stuck with the bill why am I paying it. I’ve never worked so hard to be so broke,” he added.

“Sweetie,” Isabel turned her glare on him. “Do you have anything to say? I’d hate to have to turn my attention on you after I finish with Kyle tonight.”

Alex visibly blanched, “Ahhmmm, no, I didn’t say anything, did I?” he answered fearfully.

“Good,” Isabel replied. “Now stop complaining. You should see what Trina did to Daddy’s frequent flyer account to cover our flight and hotel upgrades. I think he was going to start crying when I left the office. Oh and Sweetie, be sure to give Agnes a good tip. She works hard for your money.”

‘I’m going to have to learn to be careful with what I say around her,’ Alex thought as he handed Agnes every last cent that he had.

“And be careful what you think,” Isabel added wordlessly.

“Pennies,” Agnes muttered as she walked away. “I don’t know why I put up with these teenagers.”

“What’s this?” Michael asked as he looked at the bottle.

“It’s something new, peach I think,” Maria answered. “The salesman left Mr. Parker a case of samples to see if any one liked it.”

Michael opened the bottle and took a deep drink. Michael made a face as if he had drunk something rotten. He looked around but found himself trapped in the booth by his friends. Reluctantly he swallowed, “Aaaggghhh! What is this crap?”

“What’s the matter,” Maria asked with concern. “Don’t like it?”

He looked at the label, “S-3. I don’t know what this S-3 crap is, or who makes it, but everything I’ve seen of S-3 sucks. I wish it would just go away and let things continue like they always have been.” He looked at Maria, who quickly went and got him a Coke.

“I can agree with that,” Isabel stated. “By the way Sweetie, I’ve been wondering. Do you think I need a haircut?”

“God no Izzy!” Alex exclaimed. “I love your long golden hair just the way it is. You know I would never tell you what to do, but if you ever come home with say, short dark hair, I’ll retire your hair brush forever.”

“Well that settles it,” Isabel declared. “You know how I like to have my hair brushed.”

**********
Jesse was feeling a lot of heat. His friend, the county commissioner, was getting tired of bailing his nasty diseased and abused ass out of jail. Judge Lewis had informed Jesse, in no uncertain words, that unless he made a sizable contribution to his reelection fund, the next time Jesse was arrested he would be spending several years of quality time with a cellmate named Günther, and he would leave prison ‘a changed man’.

Jesse parked his car and walked out to the center of the Route 285 overpass that crossed the railroad tracks just south of the city. The condition of the bridge was even worse than his informant had described. He took his cell out and dialed with glee.

“Just who the hell is this?” Judge Lewis answered.

“It’s me Judge, Jesse,”

“Jesse? I thought I told you never to call me at home.”

“Don’t worry about it, my cell phone doesn’t have caller ID,” Jesse replied.

Judge Lewis thought about this a moment. He knew the FBI was watching him, but Jesse must know about things like wiretaps, so it must be alright to talk to him. “Well whaddaya want? Hurry up, I’m fixing to sit down to my supper.”

“I’m out at the bridge we talked about, and your guy’s right,” Jesse replied excitedly. “The guard rail on this bridge is defective. We could stage a fake accident and sue both the county and the railroad.”

Jesse was so excited talking to Judge Lewis that he failed to notice a cute little beagle walk up to him and start sniffing his leg.

“Gee-hee, gee-hee,” the Judge laughed, thinking of all the hard earned taxpayer money he could funnel into his booze and bimbo’s, ahhmm, reelection fund. “I’m going to rush supper and then get right out there. You stay right there and wait for me, ya hear!”

The little doggie decided that he didn’t like Jesse. Not only did he smell unfriendly, but there was a strange odor coming from the guy’s butt. He did the only thing dogs knew how to do when they met someone they don’t like. He lifted his leg and piddled on Jesse’s shoe.

Jesse felt a wetness on his ankle. Looking down he saw the beagle finishing it’s ‘pause that refreshes’. “Oh no you don’t,” Jesse shouted. He kicked at the dog just as it started to run away.

Meanwhile a Volkswagen microbus full of juvenile delinquents on work release from the Chavez County detention center was just getting ready to cross the bridge when the driver saw Jesse kick the dog.

Jar-Jar yelled, “Hey did you see that dork? He just kicked the snot out of that little dog.” He slammed the van to the side of the road and jumped out.

Bubba agreed, “No one kicks a dog and gets away with it while I’m around.”

Jar-Jar yelled at Jesse. “Hey asshole, kick this.” Jar-Jar drew his Glock-17 and opened fire.

Suzie-Q climbed out of the van and commented, “That looks like fun.” She raised her M16-A2 and started pumping round after round into Jesse.

Jason shouted, “Rock and Roll,” and opened up on Jesse with his squad-automatic-weapon.

Bubba didn’t say anything. He just started firing his grenade launcher.

Jesse pleaded with his tormentors, “Why? It’s not my fault! I just do what I’m told. Yea, that’s right! It’s the voices in my head. They’re to blame, not me. I’m an American, and it’s my God given right to not take personal responsibility for anything I do. I can blame it on the voices in my head. That’s why I kick dogs and date little girls.”

As the rounds kept pouring into him, Jesse lost his balance due to the seventeen pounds of lead in the upper half of his body. As he staggered into the roadway, he was hit by a bus, which knocked him high into the air, spinning him ass over teakettle.

Jesse slammed into the pavement, chipping a tooth. “Great, now I’m going to have to get a cap,” Jesse complained as he looked up just in time to see a Mack truck approaching. It must of been Jesse’s lucky day, because this truck was the “Cement Special’ and was towing not one but two trailers. It was poetic justice that the driver of the truck had bribed Judge Lewis and was substantially over the maximum weight limit for trucks on this bridge, which is the primary reason that it was in need of repair. The driver, who was busy watching Suzy-Q’s rear end as she climbed back into the V-dub, never felt Jesse as he ran over him.

The Chaves County public works department was hard at work preparing for the coming winter. In preparation for their annual eight inches of snow, they were conducting drivers training on a new snowplow. The newly hired driver was a recent immigrant from south of the border, who had never seen snow before, and was unprepared for the reduced forward visibility that a plow caused. As a result he did not see Jesse lying on the pavement.

The plow slammed into Jesse, rolling him up the face of the plow before dropping him back to the street. Jesse ‘surfed’ across the width of the front of the truck before being tossed out from the edge of the plow onto the side of the road. Having rolled the width of the truck he was dizzy enough to loose his cookies just before the ‘tag-along’ wing plow hit him. This second plow performed it’s job better than expected. It lobbed Jesse clean over the bridges guardrail.

Jesse screams at the intense pain from being smacked by the snowplow were nothing compared to the sounds that he made as he saw the fate that awaited him below. Apparently the poor condition of the bridge was public knowledge, because there was a television news helicopter hovering next to the bridge. Jesse saw the look of panic on the cameraman’s face just before he fell into the whirling rotors. Jesse’s two hundred pound body was no match for the nine hundred horsepower jet turbine propelling the main rotor. The blades were turning so fast that he was unable to fall through the spinning disk. Instead the blades chopped Jesse’s extremities from his torso, and tossed him, alive for the most part, hundreds of feet into the air.

It is a well-known fact within the medical community that an adult human will fall ass first, if dropped from a great enough height. Jesse was no exception to this rule. He looked down between his legs, or where his legs used to be, and saw the railroad tracks fast approaching. “Why is it always my ass,” he screamed. Jesse hit the rail dead center, splitting him nearly in half. The impact drove his ass, and the tender equipment just forward of his ass, up to his naval. Jesse fell to the side, landing across the rails, his wayward extremities falling on top of him.

Marco was the engineer operating the two hundred car freight train ‘Salad Bowl Express.’ The train receives its name due to the fact that the first fifty cars contain fresh produce from the fertile valleys of California. The train receives priority treatment to help rush it’s perishable cargo to the East Coast. Marco was using every bit of the eighty mile an hour speed limit on the tracks south of Roswell, when he saw what might have been a person fall onto the tracks. He slammed the train into emergency stop, but knew it was already too late. At the speed he was going it would take a mile and a half for the train to stop. Every one of the wheels on all two hundred train cars ran over Jesse.

One of the cars at the end of the train carried rock salt, destined for the coming winters snow-covered highways in Colorado. The jarring of the train caused some of the salt to spill off the end of the car, coating all of Jesse’s wounds with a heavy white coating. One especially large lump of salt came to rest in a conveniently located bodily orifice. “My ass,” Jesse muttered. “Why is it always my ass.”

The last car of the train carried gasoline. Unfortunately the tank car had been filled during the graveyard shift at the refinery, when temperatures were much cooler in the desert night. The hot afternoon sun had caused the contents of the tank car to expand, causing the level of the fluid to come dangerously close to the emergency overflow drain. The tank car shook as it rolled over the rock salt that had spilled onto the rails, and this was the final nudge needed to cause the volatile liquid to slosh out of the overflow. Jesse was saturated with the gasoline, and although blinded by the combustible fluid, he was able to distinguish a spark of light descending towards him. Someone had thrown a lit cigarette butt over the side of the bridge.

Jesse was consumed in a brilliant ball of flame as the gasoline exploded. He was burned to ash, lighter than air ash that was carried aloft by an ill wind that blew under the bridge every afternoon, when the sun heated one side of the bridge and the shade cooled the other side. Jesse’s ashes were carried thousands of feet into the air where they mingled with moisture in a vapor stream coming from an unregulated smoke stack at Judge Lewis’s mining operations near the Mexico border. Due to the fact that Judge Lewis did not believe in expensive pollution control equipment, the water vapor was quite acid in nature, and in fact was the major cause of acid rain in the Roswell area. Jesse’s ashes were dissolved by this acid laden moisture, and he ceased to exist.

**********
Isabel got a far away look in her eyes.

Alex looked at her, “What’s wrong.”

“I just felt a great disturbance in the force.”

“Excuse me?”

“Oh nothing important,” she replied, getting ready to leave. Do you want to go home, curl up, and watch Jeopardy? She glared at her companions, heading off any more incidents of dry throats before they began.

“Actually,” Alex said hesitatingly, “I’m taping it. I figured that we would go and visit with your parents.”

Alex helped Isabel out of the booth, and as she walked to the door he turned to Max and Michael. “You know,” he said with a ‘cat that ate the canary’ grin, “If having your girlfriend change into a pair of shortie PJ’s and mold herself to you on the couch while you pretend to watch TV is whipped, I guess I am. And happily so!”

Isabel waited for her other half at the door. She ignored her independent nature and stepped aside, allowing Alex his own personal pleasure of opening it for her. Having heard his comment to their buddies, she felt extraordinarily tender towards him. As she passed through the doorway she said “Thanks Sweetie,” and allowed her hand to caress the length of his arm.

Alex followed her through the door with the biggest grin on his face that she had ever seen. ‘I can’t believe how much he loves me,’ she thought. ‘And how much appreciation he has for the least little thing I do for him.’ She was brought back to the present as Alex took her hand for the long arduous eleven-second expedition to the car.

As Isabel settled in the drivers seat and buckled her belt, she looked at Alex. “We’re going to my house?”

“Yea, I called earlier, and you parents are expecting us,” he responded.

“Is there anything I should know about?” she asked teasingly.

Alex looked at her as she pulled out into traffic. “No, I just thought that with us working so much for the past several weeks, taking off for Texas tomorrow and going to check out colleges pretty soon, you would like to spend some time visiting.” He took a deep breath and his voice turned serious. “Izzy, the time you have spent at our house has been the happiest time that I’ve ever had. And although I hope we’ve done everything we could to make your stay comfortable, I know how much you love your parents and need your mother. I also imaging that this has been hard on her, with Max out of control, and her daughter staying with friends. I just thought she would like you to stop in.”

Isabel nodded in agreement and reached out to give his leg a squeeze. She did not trust herself to say anything. She was on the brink of tears, barely able to believe how nice he was to her. She had never thought of her mom, just that she needed to get away from her brother. Isabel had never stopped to consider how her mom felt about the crisis in both of her children’s lives, yet her boyfriend did, instinctively knowing that her mom was as much a victim of circumstances as she was.

Isabel could barely believe how strong her feelings had become for this man, this simple guy who had finally won her over. ‘Simple? Never. He can change my mood with a smile. He can poke fun at himself and make an entire room full of people laugh. He’s not afraid to be seen on the dance floor, and he won over the entire school at the prom. He stood between me and Tess, and took the shot that was meant for me.’ He had aroused in her more that feelings of love and banished more that her feelings of loneliness. Alex made her feel, alive. She smiled as another need made itself apparent, her body was dripping with desire for it’s mate. ‘Alex, Sweetie, you already have my heart and soul, and if it’s the last thing I do, you’re going to have my body as well.’ “I love you Sweetie,” she said softly.

“I know,” he replied through their connection, mischievously adding, “Took you long enough to figure that out,” aloud.

Isabel turned towards him with a look of surprise on he face.

Before he could say anything he continued, “Just teasing.” He added, “I love you too, more than you’ll never know.”

“Teasing,” she exclaimed, “That’s what you think. You’re going to learn the meaning of teasing tonight.” ‘Lets see how many sets of PJ’s you can go through in one night,’ she added to herself.

**********
Isabel and Alex entered the kitchen and sat at the table with the Evans’. Diane got up and went for the coffee pot. Philip stood also. “None for me Dear. As a matter of fact, could you help me with something out in the garage Alex?”

Isabel watched as the two most important men in her life walked out. “Where are they going?”

“Well,” she answered, “I think your father is going to threaten your boyfriends futures sex life,,,”

“Now wait just a minute,” Isabel exploded. She closed her eyes and started to warn Alex.

“No!” Diane exclaimed. “None of your hocus-pocus. Your father needs to do this, and your boyfriend needs to hear it.”

“Mom,” Isabel replied, not backing down at all. “That’s my future sex life too, and I don’t want it to be over before it begins.” She calmed and looked at Diane. “Seriously Mom. We haven’t done anything yet, well nothing you have to worry about. I just haven’t made that much progress with Alex,” Isabel stated, her voice calming. “Not for want of trying,” she added softly.

Diane smiled sphinx like as she took another sip of coffee.

“What?” Isabel demanded. “I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know. Besides, I have to tell so many lies because of who I am, that I don’t want to tell you any more than I have to.”

“Can I offer you a beer?” Philip asked. “I don’t think one would hurt,” he added as he pulled a bottle out of the garage fridge and popped the top.

“No sir,” Alex replied, watching his host practically drain the bottle in one pull and put the bottle down. “I don’t think that would be a good idea.”

Philip reached onto his tool bench and picked up a set of tree clippers. “Why wouldn’t that be a good idea?”

Alex watched as Philip picked up a file and started to sharpen the clippers. “I don’t think it would be a good idea. I’ve never had a beer before and I don’t know how I’ll react.” ‘Especially after being brought back from the brink of death, twice, by aliens that seem to be allergic to alcohol,’ he added silently. “I don’t think it would be very responsible of me to try something like that in front of my girlfriends father.”

Philip gave the blade of the clippers a nice long stroke with the file.

“Mr. Evans,” Alex asked carefully, “Why do you have clippers? We live in a desert. You don’t have any trees or hedges on your property.”

Philip ignored Alex’s question and looked at him, his expression dead serious. “That’s what I like about you Alex, responsible and intelligent,,,”

Alex looked at Philip and took a deep breath. “Mr. Evans, I think I can save us both a little time here. I love your daughter, and I will do anything in my power to make her happy. I don’t want to change her, or take her away. I want to add to her happiness, not replace what she already has that is good in her life.”

“You know, if anyone did anything to hurt her,,,” Philip continued.

“Her happiness means more to me than my own life,” Alex said earnestly. “I would kill or die for her without hesitation. My only regret would be that it would upset her. I love her so much that if I thought for a moment that I was hurting her or that I was wrong for her, I would walk away and never look back; but I promise you, I will never let that happen.”

Philip looked at the clippers in his hand and tossed them onto the counter. “Well that shoots my speech all to hell.”

“Excuse me?” Alex asked, confused.

“Well, I dragged you out here to have the talk that every father has to have with his daughters boyfriend,” Philip said with a sigh. “I bought those clippers on Isabel’s thirteenth birthday, and after all of the inappropriate guys she’s gone out with I was finally looking forward to using them during a talk with a normal teenage boy. It’s my duty as her father to put the fear of God into you with vague threats of castration.”

“And,,,” Alex asked, carefully taking a step backwards.

“Well it’s hard to think of maiming the boy who’s the answer to every fathers prayers,” Philip said with a smile. He extended his hand, “Welcome to the family.”

Alex reached and took his hand. “Thanks, you had me worried for a moment.”

“Good, but don’t relax yet,” Philip answered. “I’ll always be her father, and even after you’re married and have children of your own, she’ll still be my baby girl.”

“Who knows,” Alex added laughing. “We’re talking about Isabel after all, there may be times I need your help.”

Philip laughed joining in, “I know what you mean. When she gets like that she’s Diane’s daughter, not mine.” He took a breath and collected his thoughts. “In all seriousness Alex, I’m going to tell you something that I want you to take to heart for the rest of your life. You go to that girl with good intentions and a open heart, and she will make you the happiest man on the face of the planet.”

“I’ve already come to realize that,” Alex replied, totally serious. “These past couple of months have been the happiest of my life.”

“Good,” Philip answered, throwing an arm around the younger mans shoulder. “Then lets get inside and see what kind of trouble the girls have got us into.”

**********
Charles and Gloria were at the kitchen table talking about their day when the teens arrived home. They immediately raided the fridge. “Sweetie,” Isabel whined, “I’ve been on my feet all day. I need a foot rub.”

Gloria almost choked on her coffee hearing Isabel’s special request.

“A foot rub, never going to happen,” Alex replied, not really paying attention as he reached for a bag of chips. “Feet are nasty. If you want a foot rub you can go on the internet and find some p-vert to rub them for you because I’m not going to.”

“So are you telling me my feet smell?” Isabel pouted.

“I’m telling you that if the most beautiful woman I ever met asked me for a foot rub, I’d turn her down too,” he replied.

“So now your telling me that in addition to not loving me you think I’m not good looking?” Isabel asked, adding a big fake sob.

Alex turned towards Isabel, “Ahhh, I know what you’re doing, and it’s not going to work,,,”

“And what am I doing Sweetie?” she teased.

The young couple continued to bicker as they left the kitchen to go upstairs to shower and change.

“Nice to see the boy finally stand up for himself,” Charles said proudly.

“You think?” Gloria replied incredulously. “You do realize she’s going to get her foot rub, don’t you.”

“No,” Charles answered, wondering what part of the conversation she had missed. “You heard him.”

Gloria looked at Charles. “I’ll bet you she gets exactly what she wants from him, and he’ll be happy to do it.”

“I’ll take that bet, what terms?”

“You have an overnight trip to Reno coming up. When I win, you’ll schedule it for the week they go to Boston and schedule a couple of extra days off. I’ll join you and we’ll have a mini vacation. You can call it an early anniversary present.”

“And if I win?” Charles asked, already liking this bet.

“Oh you won’t win, not with Isabel being involved, but I’ll offer you the same terms.” When Charles looked puzzled she added with a grin, “Don’t worry, I’ll make it worth it.”

A little while later Charles stood, “Well that’s it for me.” He looked at his wife.

“You go up,” she instructed. “I’m going to tidy up a bit and then I’ll be right behind you.”

Charles walked through the living room and looked at the teens. Alex was sitting at one end of the couch; Isabel’s head was at the other end. Alex was doing a good job on the Jeopardy questions, for once not getting trounced by his girlfriend. Isabel was ignoring the game and seemed to be enjoying her foot rub. ‘One of these days I’m going to learn to keep my mouth shut,’ he thought. “Alex, check the locks before you go upstairs. Sleep well.”

Isabel bounded off the couch. “Good night Mr. Whitman, and thanks for everything,” she added giving the man a peck on the cheek.

“Isabel,” he beamed under the extra attention. “You don’t have to keep saying that.”

“Yes I do,” she replied as she returned to the couch.

Gloria finished rinsing out the coffee cups and followed her husband upstairs. As she stepped through the living room she noticed that Isabel was lying on the couch with her head in Alex’s lap.

Isabel thought of getting up and giving her hostess a hug as well, but she decided not to. Alex was stroking her hair, and had turned her into a lazy sack of goo. “Good night Gloria,” she offered instead.

“Isabel,” Gloria stated, squaring off in front of the couch. “Do you know what makes all of those old movies you like so romantic?”

“Not really,” Isabel replied, not having any idea where this conversation was going.

“Well for one thing,” the Alpha female instructed. “They obeyed the rules of lady like behavior. For example, keeping one foot on the floor at all times.”

“Yes Ma’am,” Isabel stuttered as she struggled to sit upright.

“Well okay then,” Gloria replied, pleased with the younger woman’s response. “You go ahead and snuggle, just be respectful of the rules. Good night.” As Gloria climbed the stairs she thought, ‘I don’t know why Charles has so much trouble with them, I never seem to have any trouble reminding everyone in the house whose boss.’

**********
Alex sat down in front of the Blade, ‘Izzy’s all tucked in, the house is as quiet as a tomb, and I haven’t worked on her book for over a week. Lets see what I can get done before I get tired.’

Alex brought up his encryption program and looked at the iteration log. He reviewed the criteria that he had used on each of the previous forty-seven attempts at translation. Nothing he tried yet even came close to working.

Alex shook his head in disgust. ‘This isn’t going anywhere.’ He brought up a scan of the original text. Looking at the Whirlwind Galaxy on the cover of the book, he started to work on a theory that he had been thinking about for several days.

Isabel looked down at her PJ’s. ‘These might be okay for the couch while Charles and Gloria are around, but after my Sweeties actions tonight, I need something a little better.’ With a wave she replaced the tank and boxer set she was wearing with a delicate red satin shortie baby doll set. With another wave she added a sheer nylon robe. She looked down at herself in appraisal. ‘Oh who am I trying to kid.’ Another wave of her hand and the PJ’s were gone, leaving just the robe. ‘Perfect,’ she smiled in satisfaction. ‘It doesn’t hide a thing, yet he still has something to take off me.’

“Sweetie,” she called out flirtingly, “Ready or not, here I come.” She ran into his room, intending to jump on top of him as he lay in bed, but he wasn’t there. “Sweetie? Are you in the shower?” she bit her lower lip as she walked to his bathroom. “I got something for you and it’s already all lathered up.” No Alex. She thought a moment, “Ahhh, you want to get nasty in your parents room?” He wasn’t there. “I know, the back porch.” She smiled remembering what he had done to her against the side of the house, but the back yard was also empty.

She put her hands on her hips, and opened her voice thorough the dream realm, “Enough of this playing hard to get Sweetie. Where are you? I’m going to put a smile on your face if I have to crack you up the side of the head to do it.”

Alex looked at the image of the original scan. He glanced at the Blade workstation. “We are going to do this you know, it’ll be a lot easier if you would start helping.” He returned his attention to the monitor. “Okay, up to now we’ve been assuming that all of the material here belong to a single character set. But what if that’s wrong. The Whirlwind Galaxy is definitely a symbol, some kind of icon. That’s why I didn’t assign a binary value to it. But lets say that the entire text of the book contains icons as well as a character set. Maybe the text doesn’t have an ornate character at the beginning of each section like I assumed. Lets assume that they are icons, and not part of the Antarian alphabet at all.” Alex quickly scrolled to the back of the text, looking at a page full of the larger symbols. “If it’s true that these are icons and not characters, then this could be some kind of appendix.” He looked at the one hundred and twenty one icons scattered through this section of text, the first of which he had named Earth. A suitable name as the symbol resembled the orbit of the moon circling the planet. “Okay, the only way I’m going to check out this theory is to get to work.”

Alex quickly and efficiently typed a command to separate the binary file that represented his original character set into two separate files. One new file would contain the icons and second new file would contain the remaining characters. He hit the enter key and was dismayed when the computer laughed at him. Well, it didn’t really laugh at him, instead it displayed an error message. “Unable to comply,” Alex read. “Unable to sort undefined character set.” Alex started to type an expanded command to tell the program how to separate the two sets when he stopped. “It will be quicker if I do it myself,” he sighed.

Isabel was starting to get irritated. She couldn’t understand where Alex was hiding, or more importantly, why. She waved her hand over her robe, changing it to a sundress, a blue sundress. She crossed the street and approached the door of the Crashdown. “You had your chance Alex, and you blew it. It’s going to be a cold day in hell before you see the goodies again, let alone get your hands on them.”

She threw the door of the restaurant open, sending it smashing into the wall. The first thing she noticed was Kyle behind the counter. He was serving soda to a row of Ava cheerleaders, blue hair, fishnet stockings and all. She started to approach the counter then hesitated, noticing that Kyle was wearing a set of shoulder pads and a jock under one of Mr. Parker’s famous alien themed aprons, with nothing else.

Kyle threw his hands up in defense. “Whatever it is, I didn’t do it.”

Isabel smiled at him evilly, “You and I have some unfinished business, but right now you can save yourself if you tell me where Alex is.”

“Isabel,” Kyle pleaded, “I don’t know where he is.” He shrugged his shoulder towards his cheering section and added in a softer voice, “And I’m kind of busy, you know?”

Isabel looked at the Ava’s and saw a little more than she wanted to. “For God sake Ava, put some panties on!” Noticing that not one of the Ava’s responded to her she looked at Kyle, aghast. “She doesn’t know about any of this, does she?” With a wave of her hand each cheerleader received a fresh pair of ‘Jockeys for her.’ She leaned on the counter facing down the young Casanova. “Remember this Kyle. If I ever find myself in one of your dreams, you’ll never have another peaceful night sleep as long as you live.” She turned to continue her search for her wayward boyfriend, but turned back to Kyle for one last comment. “You know something? Why spoil a perfectly good bad mood.” With a final wave of her hand each Ava was carefully fitted with a solid bronze, fully functional, chastity belt. She could hear Kyle’s moans as she walked out the door. “Sweetie, I’m going to check Frazer Woods and then the park. If I don’t find you there, I swear I’ll wake up and kick your ass. I won’t be denied my cuddle time.”

Alex looked at the file containing the new smaller character set. “Okay, lets see if I can save some time.” He started typing a new set of commands. ‘Run all previous iterations utilizing the reduced character set.’ He hit the enter key and watched the computer start to work.

As Isabel left Frazer woods her exhaustion caught up with her. She slipped out of the dream realm. Isabel finally found Alex at the park. She called out to him, and was surprised that he did not respond. “What’s going on?” she wondered. “We are always aware of each other when we’re sharing a dream.” She watched as Alex, laughing uproariously as he caught two children, a little boy and slightly older girl, as they reached the foot of a slide. He would give each of them a hug and then put them on the ground so that they could run to the ladder and do it all over again.

Isabel stopped about ten feet away from the happy family, but found she was still unable to interact with them. “What’s going on? Whose dream is this, anyways?” she asked of no one in particular.

The young girl stopped at the top of the slide, the gentle breeze and sunlight causing her golden hair to glow like a halo around her beautiful face. “Daddy, watch me. I can go real fast.”

“Okay Sweetie, I’ll catch you,” Alex replied.

Alex caught his daughter and swept her up into his arms, causing a chorus of giggles that sounded like music to Isabel’s ears. The young boy, not wanting to be left out, hugged his Daddy’s knees.

Isabel drew her hands into a point in front of her lips, unable to contain her happiness at the tranquil moment. “Oh God Alex, they are so beautiful.”

The children turned towards Isabel. “Mommy!” they shouted. Alex quickly put down his squirming bundle of energy as they ran towards Isabel. “This is everything I have ever wanted,” she said, as Alex followed his little ones. Isabel’s look changed from rapture to confusion as the young ones ran past her. She turned to look,,,

“Mommy!” they shouted as they jumped into Vickie Delaney’s arms.

“No, NO! This can’t be! Alex! ALEX! What’s happening?” Isabel screamed.

Alex hit the F-5 key on his computer as he bolted to Isabel’s room. As he ran into the hallway the Blade executed a pre-programmed kill routine, immediately blanking his screen, moving his decryption program to the background, and evoking a password protected screen saver.

With his first glimpse of Isabel, Alex knew this was going to be a bad one. He ran into her room and sat next to her on the bed, gathering her into his arms. “It’s okay Izzy,” he said rather loudly, trying to get her to notice him. He stroked her hair and glanced at his parents who were standing in the doorway.

“Izzy, I’m right here,” he said pouring every ounce of love and calm that he could into her. “I’ve got you now and I’m never going to let you go.”

“Alex, where are you?” she asked, looking around as she came awake. Tears were streaming down her face and she was in a state of near hysteria.

“I’m right here Izzy, I’ve got you. Everything’s going to be okay,” Alex said soothingly.

The children? How are our children?” Isabel asked, in panic.

Charles and Gloria looked at each other with concern. Charles started to say something, but Gloria silenced him. “Let Alex work this out,” she whispered.

“Izzy, It’s just a bad dream. We don’t have children, not yet,” he said softly, holding her close and stroking her back.

“But we’re married, right? Vicky didn’t get to you first? You’re mine. I won’t be able to go on if you marry someone else,” Isabel pleaded.

Alex took her face gently in his hands and turned it so she was looking at him. He could see the wildness in her gaze. “Izzy, Sweetheart, It’s just a dream. We’re still in high school. You’re staying here at my house.” He pulled her to him and held her tightly as her tears started to abate.

Isabel became fully aware of her surroundings, and clung to him as if her life depended on him. “I can feel you Sweetie, don’t ever let me go.”

“I promise you Isabel, I have you, and I’ll never let you go,” he replied.

“It was just a dream?” Isabel asked tentatively.

“That’s all Izzy, just a bad dream,” he answered tenderly.

“Well if this is all over,” Charles stated, “We can all get back to bed,,,”

Isabel clutched at Alex. “NO! NO! You’re not going to take him from me, I can’t live without him.” Isabel screamed, instantly hysterical again.

Alex looked at his father and shook his head. “My place is here Pops.”

“Well, you and I are going to have a talk then,,,” Charles countered.

“Fine,” Alex replied, turning his attention back to Isabel. “But not now.”

Gloria sent Charles back to their room and then sat on the other side of the young girl. “No one’s going to take him from you Isabel, I don’t think anyone could. Both Alex and Gloria soothed Isabel until she slipped from a state of panic to one of exhaustion.

Gloria looked at Alex over Isabel’s head. “How did Diane deal with this last time it happened?” she asked softly.

“Every time I tried to let go of her she started screaming again,” he replied softly, pausing to kiss the top of his girlfriend’s head. “She had us keep the door open and the light on.”

“Well, if that’s good enough for her mother, it’s good enough for me,” Gloria said. She stood up and kissed Isabel on the forehead. “Sweet dreams, Isabel”

“I will, now that I have Alex with me,” she replied. She looked up at the older woman. “You must think I’m some kind of freak,” she asked with a sniffle.

“No, actually I’m jealous,” Gloria answered. She leaned down and added softly. “No one’s ever loved me as totally as the two of you love each other.” Gloria returned to her bedroom to find Charles waiting for her.

“You’re going to let them sleep together?” he asked.

Gloria thought a moment. “Did you do a good job raising our son? Do you trust him?”

“Of course I do,” he snapped. “Why do you keep asking that?”

“And Isabel, what do you think about her?” Gloria continued to grill.

“You know how I feel about her, she’s like the daughter we’ve never had,” he said, his voice softening.

“Then why don’t you trust them?” Gloria asked, her voice softening as well. “Besides, they’re going to Texas with the girls tomorrow, and they’re going to Boston alone in two weeks. We have to trust them. We have to trust that they will be smart and not get into trouble.” Gloria looked at her husband and continued, her voice barely above a whisper, “You know, they’re going to be intimate, if they haven’t already. I don’t think it will be too long, they’re going to have,,, sex.”

Charles placed his head in his hands. “I don’t even want to think about that. As far as I’m concerned, it’s never going to happen.”

Gloria looked at him thunderstruck. “This isn’t about them, is it? It’s about you!”

Charles stood and started to pace. “So what if it is about me? I’m not ready to loose my last child. And now Isabel also.” He stood directly in front of his wife with his hands on his hips. “They are going to cross the line Gloria. And once they cross that line, there’s no turning back. They’ll be adults, and they’ll be out of our lives forever.”

Gloria reached and pulled him down to sit besides her. She slapped him on the shoulder softly. “You silly old man. Worrying about an empty house is supposed to be my job.”

“Did you see them together?” he sighed. “They don’t need us,,, need me. They went from being kids to adults overnight. I’m supposed to be the provider, the protector. It’s my duty to make the bad dreams away. Instead I’ve become a foreigner in my own house.”

“Well, for one thing, you haven’t gained a daughter, we’re just borrowing Isabel” Gloria explained consolingly. “It’s more like you gained a temporary daughter-in-law. Diane is not happy that this situation has gone from a couple of days to a couple of weeks, and although Isabel is enjoying her time with Alex, she also misses her family.”

“I don’t feel that way,,,” Charles started to say.

“Then you’re going to get hurt,” Gloria said bluntly. She looked him in the eyes and continued more softly. “Look around, you have these two new people blossoming right in front of you. Their childhood may be coming to an end, but they are not yet adults. You are going to have learn to stop treating them as children that need a strong father figure and start to treat them as young adults who need a companion and guide.”

“I don’t know how to do that,” Charles said softly. “I don’t know how to be that person. I mean I’m smart enough to know that I have to go through this process, and that it’s going to hurt. I know that my life is going to change as much as theirs, but I’ve been a parent so long that I’ve forgotten how to be anything else,” he concluded, his eyes liquid.

Gloria was shocked. She had never seen her husband this. Throughout their marriage she had seen him face every crisis, from uprooting their family when they moved to Roswell to the death of their parents with a quiet stoicism. She realized that this was a time for her to be strong for him. “Hey,” she reached and caressed his cheek tenderly. “None of this is going to happen overnight. There is still more than a year before they leave for college, and what am I, chopped liver?”

Charles looked at her with a question in his eye.

“”We were a couple before we were a family, remember? We’re going to be able to do some of those couple things we didn’t have the time or money for before. We are going to be able to make new friends, like the Evans’. You complain about how the city is run, maybe it’s time for you to run for the city council. You could help make this a community that the kids would want to return to after they finish college.”

“You think it’s going to be alright then?” he asked softly.

“Of course it’s going to be alright. Maybe not right at first, and maybe not every day, but we’re going to be alright,” Gloria assured him. “Now come to bed. I’m tired of Isabel being the only woman in the house receiving any affection.” Seeing Charles groan at this comment she added, “Come on, they’re teenagers for crying out loud. That’s what they’re supposed to be doing at this point in their lives.”

Meanwhile at the other end of the hall Isabel awoke, alert and looking for whatever change had awoken her. After a moment she realized that Alex, in his sleep, had released his grip on her and flopped onto his back. Isabel had no intention of wasting the fact that they were sleeping together by not touching as much of him as she could. She rolled towards him, and molded herself into his right side. She nestled her face onto his neck and shoulder, and slipped her right hand under his shirt and brought her hand up to rest over his heart. She moved her upper leg so that his leg ended up between hers, where it belonged. Isabel turned her face slightly and kissed his shoulder. “This is the first of three nights we get to spend together,” she whispered. “So I’m going to take it easy on you Sweetie. No teasing, no dream walking. Besides, nothing I can do in a dream can compare with the reality of this.” She settled her head and closed her eyes. A gentle smile crept onto her face as she thought of what those next two nights would bring.

TBC

Posted: **Mon Sep 19, 2005 5:55 pm**

Please post more I can't wait to reread the whole fic again

Posted: **Mon Sep 19, 2005 9:35 pm**

Gazer Gets the Girl
Chapter 13A - A Weekend at the Beach, Part 1
by Stargazer_md

Disclaimer: The characters don’t belong to me. If they did, the show would still be on.
Some text is borrowed from the show, I didn’t treat it any worse than the original
writers.
Summary: A&I fun mostly.
Setting: Summer between S-2 & S-, well we won’t go there.
Category: Alex/Isabel with CC
Rating: Mature,,, starting now

Where were we? Isabel and Alex are both trying to tie up loose ends on their individual projects before they take their road trip to Texas. Will they get everything done in time? Will their parents get in the way? Only one way to find out.

Authors note:
When I started this part I planned it as a ten page story about a trip to the beach, but after reading feedback and thinking about how parents would react to their teens talking off together, I realized I needed a lot more. Once the update hit 40 pages with no end in sight, I decided to break it in half and concentrate on finishing the first half.

Part 1
Gloria looked up to see the young teens enter the kitchen, hand in hand. She noticed that Isabel looked rested. “I hope your night ended up better than it started?” she asked.

“Yea,” Isabel answered with a smile. “Alex got me through it.”

“Isabel, let breakfast wait a minute, please,” Gloria said softly, yet leaving no room for discussion. “Get yourself a mug of tea, and have a seat. Alex, your father needs you out in the garage.”

Alex walked towards the door and then stopped and turned to watch his mate as she fixed her hot beverage.

Isabel looked up at him and smiled. “I’ll be alright Sweetie, you go talk to your father.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” as he turned to face his fate. “The last time I got sent to the garage I almost got castrated.”

“Well if it looks like that’s going to happen, run,” she giggled. “I have plans for Fred and I don’t want anything to happen to him.”

“Him? What about me?” Alex replied aghast.

“Isabel, about these nightmares you have,,,” Gloria started softly.

“I’m really sorry Gloria,” Isabel said softly, looking down and tracing the pattern in the tablecloth. “I know how disrupting I can be,” she added, her voice trailing off.

“Oh no!” Gloria exclaimed, reaching and taking the younger woman’s hand in hers. “Please, don’t think we’re upset because of you, we want to know if there is anything that we can do to help you stop them from happening.”

Isabel looked at her hostess, her eyes glistening.

“Charles and I will do anything we can to help you,” Gloria explained consolingly. “It breaks my heart to see someone I care about so much in such pain. Charles never got back to sleep last night. He kept pacing from one end of the house to the other. I think he looked in on the two of you every ten minutes all night. If he could put his hands on whoever or whatever is upsetting you I think he would gladly kill them.”

“It might help if I knew what was causing them,” Isabel replied hopelessly. “I keep dreaming that I’m going to lose Alex. He’s the only person that can get me through this. I don’t know what I would do without him,” she sighed, forgetting for a moment that she wasn’t alone.

**********
“Alex,” the older and wiser man jumped right in before losing his nerve. “The reason I wanted to talk to you is because your mother and I are concerned that you and Isabel are getting very close to one another.”

“Yea Pops,” Alex agreed, his face wishful.

“Are you treating Isabel with respect?” he demanded. “Because I won’t tolerate it if you hurt her. Is she having nightmares about you?”

“No Pops,” Alex exclaimed, shocked that his father would think such a thing.

“Well good,” Charles stated, relieved. “I’d hate to think that the one time you take after your brothers it involves doing something stupid to Isabel.”

“No Pops,” Alex said to reassure his father. “I’ll never do anything to hurt her. I’d sooner cut my hand off.”

“Alex, that young woman,,,” he added, pointing into the house, “ Is the best thing that’s ever going to happen to you. You keep your hands to yourself, and treat her with dignity and respect and she’ll make you a happy man for the rest of your life.”

Alex took a deep breath. He had a question that he wanted to ask for a long time. “When does it change Pops? I mean, you start off as boyfriend and girlfriend, then you progress to the point where you’re raising a family. When does the relationship change? When is it okay to put my hands on her?”

“Son,” Charles said with more confidence than he felt. “Keep your hands in your pocket. You don’t have to worry about children for years to come.”

“Come on Pops, you know what I’m trying to say. At some point your,,, Dad, I’m in love with her. Things are starting to turn physical. I still treat her with love and respect, but at the same time she,,, we,,, I need more. When does that happen? How do I know it’s the right time?”

“Well you wait for when the time’s right. When the time’s right, that will be when,,, not for a long time.”

“Well Pops,” Alex, asked exasperated, “if you can’t relate to me, how about Mom? How did you know it was time to do more that protect her and open doors for her?”

“Isabel, please don’t take this the wrong way,” Gloria asked gently. “But have you ever thought of talking to someone about this?”

Isabel decided that there would be no more lies between the two women, or at least no more than absolutely necessary. “Max and I did meet with the school counselor at the beginning of the year, but it didn’t do a lot of good. There are just too many questions about my life that I can’t answer.”

“Do you mean from before you came to the Evans’s?” Gloria probed gently.

“Yea, I mean, where do I come from?” Isabel sighed. “Who would just abandon us in the desert like that? Max and myself, then Michael just a few days later. I don’t know what we would of done if Mom and Dad didn’t find us.” Isabel decided that this was as close to the truth as she could get, under the circumstances. She kept her feelings about her overwhelming destiny to herself.

Gloria took the younger woman’s hands on her own. “I think you’re putting too much pressure on yourself. You are still a teenager, and you have to remember that there are a number of adults that are waiting and willing to help you. These are questions that we ask ourselves our entire life, and we learn to deal with the fact that they are never fully answered. It’s unreasonable to expect that you will find these answers, or that Alex will be able to answer them for you.”

“Alex is my rock,” Isabel rebutted. “He’s the only person who knows the real me, the only person I’ve ever been able to allow to see the inside of me,,,”

The two women’s conversation was interrupted as Alex stormed through the kitchen headed for the stairs.

“Sweetie,,,” Isabel started to ask, before Gloria stopped her.

“Alex!” Gloria exclaimed, stopping the young man in his tracks. “What happened?”

“You know Mom,” he sighed. “If Pops can’t handle my questions, why does he demand that I ask them? I got grounded until I turn forty.”

“You go upstairs,” she said softly, trying to comfort her son. “I’ll be up to talk to you shortly. Do you want me to bring Isabel with me?”

Alex’s eyes opened wide. “No!” He turned and practically fled the room.

“Sweetie?” Isabel questioned, instantly concerned for him. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong Izzy. I just need to talk to my mom about something.”

Gloria turned back to Isabel.

I’m almost ashamed to say this,” Isabel admitted quietly, returning her attention to the tablecloth, “But I wasn’t a very nice person before Alex,,,”

“Now wait just a minute,” Gloria interrupted. “You’re not going to get away with that shit with me. For the past five years I’ve heard nothing but how you worked at the homeless shelter, how you organize the annual Christmas pageant, and any number of other nice things you’ve done for others. You and Alex maintained a friendship through these years, and were very close even before the two of you started dating.” Gloria stopped to think for a moment, a smile crossing her face. “Do you know why Alex loves pizza?”

“No,” Isabel replied having found Gloria’s smile to be contagious.

“Because a slice of pizza brought the two of you together,” Gloria related. “He dropped his pizza, and you shared your lunch with him.”

“You know about that?” Isabel gasped.

“He came home from school that day, and told everyone that he had met the girl he was going to marry,” Gloria told her laughingly. “I keep trying to tell you, I know about everything. Now let’s go see what’s bothering your future husband.”

“But he said he didn’t want me there,” Isabel protested.

Gloria stopped and stared at her.

“Okay, I’m coming,” the younger woman sighed.

“By the way,” Gloria started hesitantly, “I need to ask you for a favor.”

“What’s that?” the tall teen replied.

“Alex has a doctor’s appointment,” his mom explained. “They need to give him a final exam so they can close out his case from,,, that night,,,”

“I’ll take him,” Isabel immediately volunteered.

“Would you?” Gloria responded, relieved. “I mean, you know how guys are, one of us has to take him or he’ll find a way to miss the appointment, and I can’t get time off from work right now.”

“Sure,” Isabel bubbled, “After all, like Alex says, that’s my job now.”

Alex was lying on his bed, his hands behind his head. He snapped upright as his mom walked in and sat at his desk, but his eyes bugged out when he saw Isabel follow her in.

“Sorry Sweetie,” Isabel muttered. “Command appearance.”

“So your father’s conversation with you didn’t go that well?” Gloria started off.

“Ahhmm, not really,” Alex replied. “Although I’m okay with what he had to say.”

“Really?” Gloria asked, her eyebrows reaching for the sky. “I figured that you would have some problems with his ‘hands off’ message.”

Now it was Isabel’s turn to be surprised.

“Well,” Alex stammered, “What I agreed with was how he told me that I had to treat Isabel like a lady.” Alex looked to the floor, embarrassed. “He also told me that she was the best thing that would ever happen to me, and that she would make me the happiest man on the face of the Earth.”

“Really?” Isabel almost whispered.

“Really!” Alex exclaimed. “But I already knew that, I’ve known that about us for years.”

“In that case, what did you say to him that got you grounded until you’re forty?” Gloria asked.

“Mom,,,” Alex pleaded, starting to blush.

“What’s the matter Sweetie?” Isabel teased, “You’re so adorable when you turn that shade of red.”

“Mom what?” Gloria continued. “I know he wanted to talk to you about your physical relationship with Isabel.

“MOM!!! I don’t believe this,” Alex moaned, flopping back and pulling his pillow over his face. “The only thing worse than talking to my mom about my sex life, is talking to my mom about my sex life with my girlfriend sitting there grinning at me while I’m doing it.”

“Well,” Isabel declared while standing. “Liz and Maria’s shift ends at ten. We haven’t even picked them up yet and we’re already running behind schedule, so I’m going to go downstairs and start breakfast.” She stood near the door, staring at her boyfriend with her hands on her hips. “Sweetie! You did hear that I’m leaving the room?”

Alex tossed the pillow to one side and sat up. He leaned up to receive his peck on the lips and was shocked when Isabel instead laid a blistering lip lock on him. “That’s just a down payment for your ‘happiest man’ comment,” she promised. Alex looked stunned as Isabel turned and left the room. She winked at Gloria as she left.

Gloria decided to stay silent and give her son a minute to recover.

Alex stood and walked to his window. “I love Isabel with all my heart. We have a wonderful relationship, and I have never been so happy. I am going to marry her.” He turned back to his mom, “But I don’t know,,, I don’t know when,,, how do I get from here to there?”

Gloria glanced towards the door, and then back at her son with a smile on her face. “It didn’t look like the two of you had any problems a minute ago?”

“But Mom, she’s the girl,” Alex pleaded. “She can do anything she wants, but when should I,,, could I, do more? How can I do more with her and still be a gentleman?”

“Oh no Alex. You never stop being a gentleman.” Gloria explained gently. “You remain a gentleman after you become physical, you remain a gentleman after you’re married. You never stop treating her like the most important person in your life. Now I’m not saying that the two of you should go out and get physical, but I am realistic enough to accept that it will happen. I only hope that the two of you will be ready.”

“That’s what I asked Dad,” Alex asked perplexed. “How do I know when we’re ready?”

“Alex,” his Mom answered tenderly. “Your father can’t answer that, any more than I can. Only the two of you can decide when the time is right. Have you talked to Isabel about this?”

“We talk around the issue,” he answered, “But we have never discussed it directly.” Alex’s voice softened. “I’m almost afraid to. I think if I bring up the subject she’ll hit me over the head with a club and drag me by my hair back to the cave,” he added with laughter, as he watched the scene in his mind.

“I don’t think that’s true,” Gloria rebutted. “Having watched her around you for the past month I’d have to say that she wouldn’t need a club, nor would she waste the time to find a cave.”

“MOM!!!”

“Sorry, I couldn’t resist having a bit of fun,” Gloria smiled. She took a moment and her voice turned serious. “Like any parent I don’t want to see you, the two of you, grow up too fast, but I think that the two of you are using good judgment. I think that you have to talk to Isabel about how you feel, but as long as you don’t do anything stupid, I think you’ll be fine.” Gloria stood. “Now lets get downstairs before Isabel screams at us for holding up breakfast.”

Alex stood and followed his mom out of the room, but almost walked into her when she stopped and turned suddenly.

“One of us has to say this,” Gloria turned serious. “And I can’t depend on your father to get it right.”

A look of panic crossed over Alex’s face. Not only was he going to get ‘The Talk,’ he was going to get it from his mom. “Mom, I already had this conversation with Isabel’s dad.”

“Too bad. I meant it when I told you not to do anything stupid. Not only would your father and Philip kill you,,,” Gloria knew her son, and she realized what she said next would mean more to him than any threat of death. “Diane and I would be disappointed in you if you ever hurt her like that.”

“Mom,” Alex moaned, “I could never hurt her. We’re both thinking, we’re both good kids,,,”

“No Alex,” Gloria interrupted earnestly, “You can be the smartest kids in town, and then in one moment of passion, you throw it all away. Good girls get pregnant every day. I am so proud of the two of you, and all of us, your Dad and I, Diane and Philip, we’re all happy that you have chosen each other. But the two of you are in the process of crossing the line into adulthood, and once you cross that line you can never go back.

“Mom,” Alex said reassuringly. “That’s a conversation that we did have. In fact we had it quite some time ago. We both have protection. It’s funny, really. We have it, but we don’t know if or when we’re going to need it.”

“Oh there isn’t a doubt on my mind that you’re going to need it,” Gloria teased. “But remember, there are adults all around you that love you. We’ve gone through everything that you are facing. You can talk to me about anything, and if you don’t feel comfortable talking to me, you can talk to Diane, okay?”

Alex, choked up a bit over the seriousness of the conversation, could only nod. He followed his mom downstairs.

Alex walked into the kitchen and started to hang around Isabel. He was trying to get a little attention from her with his ‘top button’ ploy. Isabel was delighted that he was trying to lighten the mood after the morning’s serious discussions, but decided to have a little fun of her own. “Careful there big guy. You’re going to get run over if you don’t stay out of my way.”

“Why would I want to sit down when I could,,,” Alex struck a perfect disco pose, one finger pointed up into the range hood, “Bust an egg with you.”

“Bust an egg,” Isabel sighed. “It’s going to be more like bust a leg if you don’t stay out of my way.”

“Well, orange you the little princess this morning,” he teased, stepping in front of her again.

Isabel looked at Gloria and winked. She turned suddenly and slammed right into her sturdy boyfriend. After grabbing her to stop her from falling, he reached for a glass, stretching right in front of her. “Alex, what’s got into you this morning?”

“Nothing,” Alex replied, standing on tiptoe, practically thrusting his neck into her face. “I’m just trying to spend time with my girlfriend,,,” his voice trailing off as she ignored him and started a fresh pot of coffee.

“Well for heaven’s sake, give me some space,” the young woman replied with a smile. “It’s like you have this strangle hold on me this morning.”

He was walking around with his chin high in the air and his neck thrust forward, a motion strangely reminiscent of a prehistoric flightless bird’s mating dance. Isabel could barely contain her laughter. Without thinking he reached up and scratched his chest.

“Stop scratching,” Isabel stated, slapping his hand.

Alex just smiled, raised his nose in the air, and looked around the room.

“Oh Alex!” Isabel exclaimed. “Here’s your problem,” she said with a laugh, unbuttoning his top button and adjusting his collar. “This tight collar is cutting off all the oxygen to your brain.”

“Took you long enough,” Alex said with a big fake pout on his face.

Isabel looked at her boyfriend with new respect. “Whitman, you’re getting awful brave all of a sudden.”

Alex replied in a gravely voice while rubbing his throat in an exaggerated manner, “I’ll risk any fate if it will put that beautiful smile back on your face.”

“Oh Sweetie,” Isabel sighed. “You deserve a reward for that. Close your eyes, pucker up,,, Sweetie, stay just like that, I just ate a jalapeno. I need a bit of mouthwash.”

Alex stood in the middle of the kitchen, waiting, until he heard, “Alex!”

Alex opened his eyes to find himself face to face with his father.

“Oh for God’s sake, what now?” Charles grimaced as his sons face quickly lost its fish like appearance. “Go to your room.”

“Alex,” Isabel countermanded as she returned to the kitchen. “Get me the leftover ham, a green pepper and an onion. Charles, take your seat.” She put the morning paper and a mug of hot black coffee at his place on the table. “We’re making omelets for breakfast.”

Alex stood in the middle of the kitchen, his eyes alternating between his father and his girlfriend.

Isabel stopped and put her hands on her hips. “Alex! Get moving! The Good Book says that you must honor your father and mother but by God you are going to learn to obey me!”

“Yes dear,” Alex murmured as he scurried towards the refrigerator, while Charles sat at the table, as instructed, grumbling all the way.

“What was that?” Gloria asked, playing along in this little war of the sexes.

“He said that he didn’t know how Philip could put up with me for the past eleven years,” Isabel joked. She quickly threw her arms around his neck. “Daddy loves the attention even more than you do Pops.” She reinforced her affection by kissing her surrogate father on the forehead before returning to the stove.

Charles didn’t say a word, but his beaming face was enough to light the room.

After breakfast, Alex looked at Isabel and asked, “Okay, where’s our stuff?”

“Sweetie,” she replied. “You know me, I had us packed last week, and I loaded the car two days ago. I bought gas yesterday, I have your spending money tucked away, and the coolers in the garage, already filled with soda, water, ice, and snacks.”

Alex looked around the kitchen, “I just want to make sure we don’t forget anything,,,”

“You doubt me!” Isabel demanded, incredulously.

Alex just smiled and shook his head as he quickly bent to kiss his mom on the cheek.

“You two have fun,” Gloria said, receiving a kiss from Isabel as well.

“We will, take care Pops,” Alex stated as he headed for the door. He turned his attention back to Isabel. “Doubt you? Now why would I doubt you?”

“You better not,” Isabel warned him. “Or I’ll lay a hurt on you that’ll will make what Maria does to Michael look tame by comparison.”

Both parents watched the teens leave. “Well it looks like he’s learning to stand up to her,” Charles commented offhandedly.

“Is that what you see?” Gloria replied. “I think it’s more that they are becoming more comfortable with each other. Their natural tendencies are coming to the surface.”

Charles looked at his wife of almost thirty years. “Do you think they’ll make it?”

“There isn’t a doubt in my mind,” Gloria stated emphatically. “They were made for each other.”

“They’re not the only ones made for each other,” Charles quipped as he pulled his still lovely wife from her chair. He dipped down, put his shoulder against her waist, and easily lifted her from the floor. He started caressing her bottom as he headed for the stairs.

“What’s got into you?” She asked without complaint. “Ever since you had those dreams last month you’ve been insatiable. What is it today? The fireman and the damsel in distress?”

“You use a fantasy if you want,” her horny husband barked as he stomped up the stairs. “I’m going to make love to my wife.”

Gloria couldn’t think of anything she wanted more, so she just hung on for the ride, and what a ride it was.

**********
Alex walked Isabel to the passenger side of his car and opened the door for her, while Isabel looked at him and pouted. “Nope, that’s not going to work this time,” he said with a smile. He closed her door and got in behind the wheel. He quickly drove to her mom’s house.

“Sweetie!” Isabel exclaimed excitedly. She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek before bounding out of the car and into the house.

Alex followed her at a pace closer to his own sedate nature. By the time he got into the kitchen Isabel and Diane were already sitting at the table drinking tea. Alex decided to go into the living room and leave his girlfriend to spend some quality time with her mom. Philip and Max weren’t around, so he turned on the TV. He quickly checked the History Channel, followed by the Discovery Channel and CNN. He didn’t find anything interesting, so he changed the channel to MTV. “Why don’t they play any music on music television?” he asked the boob tube.

His rant was interrupted by Max, who blew through the room on the way upstairs. He was surprised to see his girlfriend follow him soon after. “Izzy?” he asked.

“It’s okay Sweetie,” Isabel said with a smile. “I haven’t seen my brother for a week. I’m going to go wish him a good time at the concert.”

Alex turned the TV off and went into the kitchen. Noticing that Diane’s mug was empty, he took both mugs and refilled them. When he was finished, he sat at Isabel’s chair.

“And how is Alex doing today?” Diane asked, leaning forward and wrapping her hands around the warm mug.

“Alex is doing fine,” he responded. “In fact I am doing better than fine, today and every day.” He leaned back in his chair and smiled. “I have to pinch myself to make sure I’m not dreaming.” He took a sip of tea, and almost choked.

Diane leapt up and took the mug away from him. “I should have told you use a clean mug. She had that one about half full of Tabasco.” She reached for a clean mug, but turned towards the front of the house when she heard someone stomp down the stairs.

Isabel stormed into the kitchen. “Come on Whitman, we’re running late.” She pecked her mom on the cheek and was out the door moments later.

Alex looked confused but quickly recovered. “She’s been after me all morning because we’re running late.” He stood and hurriedly kissed Diane’s other cheek.

“You take care of my baby,” the worried mother enjoined. She didn’t believe this was about their being late.

“With my life,” Alex promised.

Diane stood and wearily climbed the stairs. She took a deep breath and walked into Max’s room. “This ends, and it ends now.”

“Why can’t anyone leave me alone?” Max shouted as he stormed out of the house.

**********
Alex opened the door to the Crashdown for Isabel, guided her through the door with a hand to the small of her back, and then followed her to their booth. Maria was just finishing cleaning their booth, and the young couple sat down she slipped into the opposite side. While Isabel seemed a little bit quiet and Alex covered her hand with his own, Maria had a huge grin on her face.

“Isn’t it amazing that guys balls hang down?” the young pixie stated.

Isabel looked shocked at that admission, but Alex immediately turned technical. “There’s a really good reason for that. Our guys need to hang down in the breeze so they can stay cool. If they overheat they may ahhmm, deliver a defective product,,,”

“Well then,” Maria interrupted, “Max is going to be delivering some bad product for a while.”

“What happened?” Isabel demanded.

“Well Liz isn’t talking, yet,” Maria filled her friends in, “But what I can tell you is that Max came in here and got her to sit right where I am. It looked like he was trying to talk her into something, but she didn’t go for it. You know, we’re going to be in a car with her for over four hours, I’m sure she’ll spill,,,”

“Maria,” Isabel said sternly.

“I’m getting to it,” Maria defended herself, turning her nose up. She then turned towards Alex. “So Liz got pissed, I mean really pissed, hotter that that time Malamoot lifted her skirt in eight grade and showed her panties to the entire class,,,”

“Maria,” Isabel growled.

“You should of seen Alex after that,” Maria said proudly. “He was the only guy in the room to stand up to that asshole and defend Liz’s honor. No matter how hard Alex tried to break Malamoot’s hand with his face, Alex kept going back for more. It took the vice-principal and two teachers to pull Alex off the guy.”

“Well my brothers were ashamed that I got beaten so badly. I’m a little more capable now,” Alex added modestly. “But back to this morning.”

“I’m getting to it,” Maria sighed. “Liz threw his coffee at him, then she got up, took another coffee from a customer at the next table, threw it at him, and then when he jumped up she kneed him in the stones.”

“All right Liz!” Alex exclaimed, earning himself an elbow in the side.

“What happened next?” Isabel asked softly, as the three conspirators leaned forward.

“Well, Mr. Parker came out of the kitchen just in time to see Liz ring Max’s bell. He went ballistic, assuming that she must have had a good reason to do that. I think he was going to grab Max by the back of the neck and the seat of the pants and throw him through the window, but Liz grabbed Max by one of the handgrips he has on the side of his head.”

“Oh my God!” Alex exclaimed. “I have had nightmares about what Mr. Parker would do if he thought someone was trying to hurt Liz,,,”

“Didn’t happen,” Maria cut him off. “Liz shouted at her dad. She told him to back off, that she could handle any stupid idea that her boyfriend could come up with. She just had to knock some sense into him. Then she dragged him outside. Max was holding his balls and trying to keep up with Liz so she wouldn’t tear his ear off.”

“What did Mr. Parker do?” Alex asked.

“He went behind the counter and poured himself a cup of coffee,” Maria added with a smile on her face. “He said he was getting too old for this shit, then he looked at one of the regular customers at the counter and asked if he had any daughters.”

Liz appeared from the back. She was wearing a tank top, shorts and shades. “Maria, If you’re not ready in five minutes we’re leaving you behind.” She scooted into the spot that Maria had just vacated. “I’ve got to get away from here,” she said, putting her face in her hands.

“Tell me about it,” Isabel agreed.

Liz looked at the young couple. “Isabel? Can you help me with something in the back?”

“Yea,” The tall one replied, “Sure.”

“I’ll join you,” Alex volunteered.

“No Alex,” Liz stated, “This is girl talk.”

“Yea,” he responded with a big smile on his face. “Just us girlfriends.”

“No, I mean it,” Liz commanded. “I need to talk to Isabel alone.”

“Sweetie,” Isabel interceded, looking up at the new arrival, “Why don’t you sit down and talk to Tess until we get back.” She added a little kiss.

Liz put an orange soda with just a bit of ice and a three quarters full glass of Cherry Coke on the counter with a clipboard, and then followed Isabel into the back.

Alex sat at the counter next to Ava, “Hey.”

“Hey yourself,” she answered.

“What’s up?” Alex asked as he watched her start to fill out a form.

“I’m applying for a job. Mr. P. never replaced Courtney because Liz and Maria wanted more hours during the summer, but with school starting, he needs another waitress.”

“Yea, I can understand needing a job,” Alex agreed, “But here?”

“Why not?” the compact alien replied. “While I was hiding at the old soap factory I fell in love with the food that Liz brought me, and besides,” she added with a wave, “where else can I get this feeling of home.”

Alex watched Ava start to fill out the employment form. “Hey, you’re left handed!”

She stopped and looked at her friend. “Yea, I am. It works out that I’m the only leftie of the eight. That’s twelve percent of our population, about the same percentage as yours. Isn’t that amazing?” She continued writing. “And it sucks!”

“Why?” Alex questioned.

“Well because when you write right handed your hand rests on clean paper,” Ava said with a measure of irritation, as she threw the pen she was using onto the counter. “If you’re left handed you have to hold the paper funny, hold your hand funny, or,,,” she pulled out her own pen, “You need to find a pen with really fast drying ink.”

Meanwhile in the break room,
“You want me to what!!!” Isabel choked out, her eyes wide as saucers. “Every day for a month?”

“Isabel,” Liz said regretfully, “If you want, we can drop this right now, but I have looked into everything I can think of. If you want answers, this is the next thing we have to try.”

“We?” Isabel demanded. “I’ll remember that the next time I’m in the bathroom,,,” She stopped as she realized what she was saying. “Liz, I’m sorry. I know you’re doing everything you can to help.” She looked in the bag, “This just freaks me out.”

“If you don’t feel comfortable with this, we can drop it. I’m sure Alex wouldn’t want you to go through something that makes you feel uncomfortable.” Liz offered.

“No I can’t, ” Isabel responded. “And Alex can’t know about this. Not now, not until I have some answers. I’m not doing this for him, and I’m not doing this for myself. I’m doing this for our future.” She looked at the time. “Come on, you guys are only getting one long weekend off this summer. Time to go.”

**********
Isabel hadn’t made it outside of the city before Liz opened up. “You wouldn’t believe what Max came up with. Uuuggghhh, I don’t even want to talk about it.”

“That’s okay Liz,” Alex said comforting. “You don’t have to say anything you don’t want to.”

“He has a gun and he wants to teach me how to shoot,” Liz blurted out.

“What!?” Isabel exclaimed, almost driving off the road. “Why’s he got a gun, and what does he want you to do with it?”

“He hasn’t given up on going home yet.” Liz said with resignation. “He thinks he may have found where your space ship is. He did some research on the Internet and found out there are five government facilities in the region where he thinks the ship could be hidden. There was this facility in Utah that was abandoned in the eighties. There’s a ‘gas and gulp’ there now, and Max wants me to stick the place up while he tries to find out what’s under it.”

“Why a gun?” Maria exploded, having stayed silent way longer than she was used to. “What is he, brain damaged?”

“Well he was when I got done with him.” Liz stopped to take a breath. “He says the place is open 24-7 and it’s the only way to get a look around.”

“I agree with Maria,” Alex added. “Why doesn’t he use his powers, create a diversion. Conjure up a power failure or something. Why is his first thought to have you commit a felony?”

“It isn’t Max,” Isabel responded, her voice cracking.

Liz noticed tears running down Isabel’s face. “Isabel, What’s wrong?”

Alex answered for her, connecting with his mate and sending her waves of love and comfort. “Liz, you’re not the only one Max trampled this morning.” He reached out and placed his hand gently on her arm, “Izzy, maybe you better pull over. We can let someone else drive.”

“How did you know?” Isabel asked.

“I didn’t,” Alex replied softly. “Well, not exactly. I knew something upset you, I figured I would just do the good boyfriend thing and wait until you were ready to talk about it.”

Isabel pulled the car onto the shoulder. Alex opened the door for her and gently settled her into the back seat. He ran to the other side and quickly took his place next to her, drawing her into the protection of his arms.

“Max called me a baby killer,” Isabel said barely loud enough to be heard.

“That rat bastard,” Maria exclaimed looking away from the road as Liz sucked in all of the air from the car and Alex pulled his mate close.

“It’s Tess,” Isabel said, her voice strengthening. “She still has a hold on him,,, on his mind.”

“I don’t care who or what it,,, who he,,, Aaaggghhh,” Alex exclaimed. “That doesn’t give him the right to treat people like he does,,,”

“Sweetie,” Isabel pleaded, still defending her brother. “Tess, mind warp,,,”

“No Izzy, I don’t buy that,” he responded with passion. “While she had me under her control I knew I wasn’t myself, but I had at least some knowledge of what was happening.” He reached and caressed Isabel’s cheek. “I wasn’t aware of exactly what she had taken from me, but I did remember who I loved. I fought her every step of the way, and although I didn’t know to do the positive things for the people I loved, I did know enough to avoid hurting them.”

“Well it doesn’t matter,” Liz decided. “When we get back we’re going to get Ava and we’re going to fix him. I want my to find out what really happened with him so I can figure out what I’m going to do. I’m tired of the uncertainty, I’m tired of waiting.”

**********
“Maria?” Alex asked. “Can you find a rest stop?”

“What do you mean, find a rest stop?” Isabel asked incredulously. “We’re not even into Texas yet, and we’re already an hour behind schedule. We’re never going to get there if we keep stopping.”

“Izzy,” Alex whined, “I got to pee.”

“So wait until later,” Isabel replied dismissively. “I mean you don’t have to eat the moment you feel hungry, and you don’t have to get a bottle of water every time you get thirsty. You wait until it’s convenient. So just tell yourself that now’s not a good time and you can go when we get there.”

“Wait a minute,” Liz interrupted. “You can do that?”

“Well, Yea,” Isabel said doubtfully, looking around the car to all of her friends. “Can’t you guys?”

“Well, No,” Alex replied in the same tone of voice, pumping his legs. “Fred’s going to get brain damage if I don’t download pretty quick here. I can get blue balls from this.”

Isabel’s face broke into a huge grin as Liz corrected him. “Alex, guys don’t get blue balls from holding in urine, blue balls happen when you don’t,,,” Liz’s face turned red as she looked towards Isabel for help.

“Don’t look at me for help,” Isabel cut in laughing. “You two raised him, not me.” She reached over and waved her hand over his stomach. “Here you go Sweetie,” she added privately.

“Girlfriend,” Maria said, trying to help out. “Blue balls happen when you get your trouser commandos all riled up ready for action and then the girl bails and leaves you pointing.”

“Maria!” Liz exclaimed, slapping the girl.

“Well, how the hell am I supposed to know?” Alex stated, defending himself. “I grew up with girls,,,”

“Well, someone’s got to tell him.” She pointed at his girlfriend, “Isabel’s not going to climb down into the gutter,,,”

“I mean, I grew up listening to talk about bras and periods, not blue balls. Maria, you remember when you got your first period and I was the only one there,,,”

“Alex!” Liz exclaimed, this time reaching back and slapping her male girlfriend.

“Okay, Hold On!” Isabel shouted. “First off, Sweetie, are you comfortable?”

“Yea Izzy,” Alex said softly. “I’m fine.”

“Now, as far as blue balls and periods go,” Isabel continued, “This is all I’m going to say. Alex here will never have to worry about blue balls. When we decide to start something, I will finish it. And as far as periods, well we’re not going to go there.”

Isabel’s announcement was met with stunned silence. “So let me ask you this,” she continued. “We have one room, two beds, and four people. What do you think the sleeping arrangements are going to be?”

This started up a whole new discussion as all three women immediately started teasing Alex.

**********
Liz saw the Texas border in the distance. “Maria, pull over. We have to do a Max ceremony before we leave New Mexico.”

“What’s a Max ceremony?” Isabel asked as Maria pulled the car off the side of the road.

“Before we left the Crashdown, you said that this was the only vacation I’m getting this summer,” Liz explained. “So we’re leaving Max behind.” She jumped out of the car, opened the back door, and dragged Isabel out into the desert.

Alex and Maria watched from the air-conditioned comfort of the car. Liz faced north, threw her head back, and screamed. She flipped off the entire state. Isabel joined in, adding a two handed bird. Not satisfied with the hand gesture, Isabel turned around, thrust her butt north and pointed to it. “I think that was an invitation for Max to pucker up,” Maria joked. She then gasped as Liz did a perfect ‘Michael Jackson’ crotch grab.

The girls ran back to the car. “Lets go have some fun,” Liz shouted. “I’m not going to think of Max the entire weekend.

“Put the car in gear girl,” Isabel agreed. “We have a beach waiting for us.”

“Sun! Water! Sand! Guys in bathing suits!” Liz cheered. “Woo Hoo!”

“Speaking of guys,” Isabel launched herself into Alex’s arms, kissing him furiously.

**********
After arriving at Balmorhea State Park, Isabel walked into the small office at the San Solomon Spring Courts to check in while the others waited outside. After several minutes she emerged with a key. They were soon settled into their room and were getting ready for the beach. Isabel was in the bathroom changing, as the others were eager to go.

“Come on Isabel, we’re going swimming,” Maria shouted impatiently. “How much prep work do you need to do to yourself to throw on your bathing suit and pull your hair back into a ponytail?”

“With that, I’m leaving,” Alex exclaimed, running for the door.

Liz blocked his way, “And just where do you think you’re going?”

“I’m going to a better place,” Alex answered.

“What better place?” Liz asked innocently.

“I haven’t had this much fun in a long time,” Maria whispered while looking at her two oldest friends and laughing. She raised her voice and pounded on the bathroom door, “Isabel, it isn’t any use. All your war paint is just going to wash off the moment you jump into the water.”

“Did you hear that?” Alex asked of Liz as he pointed at Maria. “Any place is going to be better than this place when Izzy comes back out here.” Seeing that Liz was going to continue to block the doorway, he decided to hide in the closet.

Isabel came out from the bathroom and glared at Maria, “What’s wrong with you? Perfection takes time.”

“Perfection?” Maria responded doubtfully. “It’s a bathing suit!”

“No,” Isabel replied haughtily, “This is my Speedo fly-back swimsuit, with my own custom alterations to improve the fit.”

“Alterations?” Maria exclaimed, “It a bathing suit. You take one off the rack, you try it on, you look bad in it, but you buy it because you’re only going to wear it a couple of times a year.”

“Rack?” Isabel asked, unbelieving, “Look bad? I don’t think so. Let me show you. Start with a suit like Liz has on. May I?”

Liz looked down at her plain black one-piece suit and thought back to the night when Isabel ‘customized’ her PJ’s. “Please,” she would happily accept any fashion assistance that Isabel was willing to offer.

“We’ll start with the fabric, it’s nylon, but we’ll add a bit of spandex for cling and shine. Now for some color, a blue accent stripe goes great with black. Lets start under the arms, go down the sides, sweep into the middle at the waist to make you look ever slimmer, if that’s possible, and then back to the side seam at the hips.” As Isabel ran her hands down the side of the suit, rich royal blue accent stripes appeared. “These leg holes are too low, lets raise them following your natural line between your thighs and hip, and trim the leg line with some more blue, up to your waist, which will make your legs look longer. Turn around, and we’ll adjust the leg holes on the bottom, change it to a racer cut and raise the back a bit to maintain a good fit through your middle.”

Isabel stepped back to look at her work. “Okay, now for the top. We’ll make these straps narrower, and we’ll lower the neckline to,,, right there. Now we’ll get rid of this useless shelf bra,” Isabel looked Liz in the eye and gave her a wink, “and replace it with a soft cup lining to give you a little cleavage. Since you don’t have a problem with spillage, we’ll make the arm holes larger and a bit lower for comfort, and widen the top of the blue accent stripe so it starts right on the outside of your bust line. There, how’s that?”

Liz looked at herself in the mirror, her eyes bulging. “Wow, I have never seen a suit that fit this good, let alone owned one. This is incredible.”

“What do you expect? It’s an Isabel Evans original. I guarantee you can have fun in it. No matter how you move, how wet you get, or how cold it is, nothing will show.”

“That’s incredible,” Maria exclaimed, “What can you do for mine?”

“Oh I haven’t forgotten about you Maria, you mentioned war paint?” She waved her hand with an evil grin on her face.

The knot on the bottom strap of her bikini top sprung open. “You witch,” Maria screamed and hugged her arms to her chest. She got her top under control and reached back to re-tie the knot. She turned her back to Liz, “Do me favor and double tie the knot, will you?”

“Oh wow Maria,” Isabel laughed. “You better hope that doesn’t happen while we’re on the beach.”

Liz chuckled as she tied Maria’s top, “You knew she was going to get you back for that comment.” Turning towards Isabel she added, “You should start your own company, you’re a natural at this.”

“No,” Isabel sighed, “If I did this for a living it would lose all it’s appeal. I’ve already decided what I’m going to do, I’m going to make Alex a millionaire.” She looked around the room, “Where is he, anyway?”

“He’s hiding in the closet,” Maria giggled.

“Why is he hiding in the closet?” Isabel asked.

“Alex was afraid that after Maria’s war paint crack you would come out of the bathroom shooting,” Liz replied.

Alex felt a little foolish hiding in the closet, until he heard Maria scream. That exclamation reinforced his greatest fear. Suddenly he looked down at the floor, which was starting to glow red. Moments later his feet were burning. He leapt from the closet and did a hot foot dance to the girl’s amusement.

“Alex,” Isabel asked sweetly, instantly putting him on the alert. “I understand you didn’t want to take sides in our little spat. It’s so sweet that you think you still have a choice in matters involving me.”

“Come on Isabel, play fair,” Maria implored.

Isabel walked up to Alex, touching his shoulders. “I can’t believe what Maria told me, that you wouldn’t support the girl of your dreams, your mate and future wife, the mother of your future children.”

“Now wait a minute, Alex and I have been friends for years,,,” Maria protested.

“Look at that scrawny blond over there,,,” Isabel spoke softly, her breath caressing his neck.

“Hey!” Maria protested. “There’s no need to get personal.”

Isabel ran her hands up and down Alex’s chest. “Do you think she’d let you treat her body like an amusement park like I will?”

“Isabel, no touching,” she added, sensing defeat.

“One last question Sweetie, where are you going to sleep tonight, in my bed, or in your car?”

“Maria, old buddy, old pal,” Alex said with a grin. “You’re on your own.”

By now Liz was lying flat on the bed, laughing so hard there were tears in her eyes.

“Alex, I’ve given you the best years of my life, and you’re dumping me for a set of bigger boobs?” Maria turned towards Isabel, “It figures that you’d go all princess on me,,,” her eyes opened wide in panic.

“I’ll show you an alien princess,” Isabel stated waving her hand towards Maria.

Maria covered herself with her arms, fearing another knot failure, this time in front of Alex. “Alright, I give up,” she added laughingly.

“Good,” Isabel exclaimed. “Now I can finish getting ready and we can go out to the beach.”

“Finish getting ready?” Maria shouted, “Didn’t we already settle this.”

“Alex, don’t you move an inch,” Isabel commanded. She pulled a fabric panel out of her bag and used it as a wrap skirt. She then put on a straw hat and adjusted it until it fit just right. “Okay, lets go. Like I said, perfection takes time.”

Continued Next

Posted: **Mon Sep 19, 2005 9:38 pm**

The abbreviated gang left the motel and headed towards the beach. They wove their way down the alley, the three girls taking turns linking arms with their male girlfriend. They quickly arrived at the pool, and although it was no larger than a small pond, it amazed Isabel.

“I’ve never seen this much water before,” she said, amazed.

Alex quickly scooped her up into his arms, and sprinted for the beach.

“Alex, if you get my clothes wet I’ll kill you,” she laughed.

He spun her over the water, and then set he down on the edge of the pool.

Isabel took her hat off with a flourish, removed her shades and put them inside her hat. Then with a flirtatious grin towards her boyfriend, she took off her panel skirt, to the cat calls of Liz and Maria. Once ready for action she pushed Alex into the pool.

**********
Alex and the girls had settled on the sand. They were taking in some sun and drinking water after having finished a game of volleyball. Alex was looking at the water, lost in thought, while the girls were talking quietly among themselves.

Isabel was quietly brushing sand from the blankets. Every time someone moved there was more sand to be cleaned away. Maria rolled over and not only kicked up more sand, she folded one of the corners over. “Can’t you do anything without making a mess?” Isabel whined, straightening the fabric and using her hand, bolstered with a discrete application of power, to clear away the evil sand.

“Isabel, relax,” Maria replied. “We’re on vacation.”

“I am relaxed,” the controlling one replied.

Alex was thinking back to the Crashdown, watching Ava in his mind. He had not been able to stop thinking about watching her fill out the employment application with her left hand.

‘I made the natural assumption that the text in the book was written from left to right, that the lines progressed from the top of the page to the bottom, and that the pages ran from the front to back. But what happens if the real Antarians are all left handed. What happens if they write left to right? Or what happens if they start at the back of the book, or at the bottom of the page? The binary file I generated may be corrupted, simply due to a sequencing error on the way I scanned the data.’

“Alex,” Maria barked.

“Don’t disturb him,” Liz said, defending him. “He’s thinking about that blond over there,” a comment that attracted the attention of Isabel.

“What?” Alex asked, totally unaware of his surroundings.

“He’s in their own little world,” Maria commented, looking at Isabel.

“No,” Isabel replied, shaking her head. “We weren’t connected.”

“He’s fixated on that blond next to us,” Liz teased.

“No he isn’t,” Isabel barked, her dander rising to defend her territory. “Or at least he better not be.”

“No, I noticed her,” the lone male settled the debate. “I saw her when we arrived, I’m just not paying attention to her.”

Isabel decided to remain silent and watch how this conversation among the lifelong friends played out.

“Come on Alex,” Maria whined. “We need a guys opinion on her bathing suit.”

“She’s not wearing a bathing suit,” Alex responded disinterested. “She’s flossing her crotch.”

“Owww,” Liz purred. “And I thought girls were catty.”

“And that doesn’t work for you?” Maria wanted to know more. “Why?”

“Well, first of all,” Alex turned to pay full attention to his girl friends. “She’s not Isabel. But look at her, she’s practically naked. Is that all she has to offer a guy?”

“I got news for you Alex,” Maria explained, as if to a five year old. “For most guys that’s enough. Michael would look. He might not touch because he isn’t ready to die yet, but he would look.”

“Max would look, so would Kyle,” Liz piped in. “Kyle would drool, he would trip over his feet, and he would make a fool out of himself.”

“That’s probably what she’s looking for,” Alex agreed.

“But you don’t find that attractive?” Maria probed.

Alex turned for another quick look, then met Maria in the eyes. “No I don’t. Look at her. She has put everything she has on public display. She doesn’t consider anything about herself to be private or special.”

“And that’s a bad thing?” Maria continued. “Imaging Isabel in a suit like that,,,” which caused a choking reaction from the tall one, “You wouldn’t want to see her in something like that?”

“Well first off, Isabel has too much class to wear something like that,” Alex answered, gaining confidence, now that the topic was back on his favorite subject. “Everything’s out in the open, no tan lines. I like tan lines. If I ever,,,” he paused and looked at his girlfriend. “When I’m lucky enough to be offered something like that,,,” Alex threw his hands up. “I don’t believe I’m talking to you guys about this.”

“Go ahead Sweetie,” Isabel said softly. “I really want to hear what you think.” Actually she was drinking in every word he was saying, hoping that she had figured him out right.

“Well,” Alex continued with a red face that wasn’t entirely the result of the strong sun. “When I do get to that point, I want to see tan lines. I want to see that something was meant just for me, that something was special, and saved just for us.”

“Wow,” Liz sighed.

“Or maybe I like snow white boobs,” Alex interjected to lighten the mood.

“Any more like you at home?” Maria added.

“Well, Jesse’s still single,” Alex replied.

“Jesse’s a Marine,” Liz snapped.

“Jesse’s a pig,” Maria added. “He used to always try to catch us in our PJ’s when we slept over at your house.

“Hey, come on. He’s my brother, and he’s serving his country in Bosnia,” Alex replied automatically, defending his family. A moment later a smile broke over his face. “Okay, Jesse is a pig. He would love that blonde,” Alex concluded, settling the issue.

**********
“That was a great dinner,” Maria exclaimed.

“Come on Maria,” Liz rebutted. “You only think it was great because you didn’t have to cook or serve it.”

“No, I have to agree.” Isabel joined in. “It’s not so often that I can get a meal that is flavorful to me instead of just being hot. The cook was very good with his spices.”

Maria turned towards Isabel. “Why don’t you two come to the movie with us? It’ll be fun.”

Isabel raised her eyebrow. “More fun than spending a couple of hours in a hot tub with my boyfriend?”

Maria smiled and turned away, realizing the futility of further argument.

Maria showered first, followed by Liz while Alex lay on Isabel’s bed, talking to whoever was in the room. When Liz came out, Maria jetted back in to finish her make-up. Liz had a hairbrush in her hand, and looked at Alex with a question on her face.

“What?” Alex teased. “You have to ask?”

Liz quickly sat between his legs as he started brushing her hair. “Oh I miss this so much.” She leaned her head back and closed her eyes, “I forgot how good you were at this.”

“Hey, that’s my hair brusher,” Isabel said with a pout.

Alex gave his girlfriend a quick wink.

“Oh bite me blondie,” Liz sighed, not even bothering to open her eyes. “Who do you think trained him for you?”

“I wish he could do that for me,” Maria shouted from the bathroom, “But I can’t let my hair get too long.”

Surprised at that admission, Isabel asked, “Why’s that?” momentarily forgetting about the hussy sitting between her mate’s legs.

Alex laughingly answered, “Michael doesn’t like her with long hair, so he refuses to move it to get to her neck, and we all know how Maria loves her necking.”

“I heard that,” Maria snapped as she came back into the room.

Isabel was next in the bathroom, but she was only there a minute or two, as all she did not have to dress to go out. When she came out the twins interrupted their preparations to leave, noticing that Isabel was wearing a bathrobe. They both started to say something, but Isabel instantly silenced them with a glare.

“Sweetie,” Isabel said innocently. “Could you go out and get me a bottle of cold water and whatever you want for yourself?”

Alex jumped from the bed. “We’ve got water right here in the cooler Izzy,” he said, opening the lid.

“No Sweetie,” Isabel explained. “I want to save that for later. Would you mind going to the machine and getting me a fresh bottle?”

Alex shrugged, grabbed a couple of dollars, and left.

“Okay, what’s with the robe?” Maria demanded.

“Simple,” Isabel replied. “I’m wearing a string bikini, and it wouldn’t be decent to be seen in it without some sort of cover-up.”

“Another Isabel Evans original?” Liz asked.

“No,” Isabel looked down and bit her lip briefly. “Actually it’s white, and made of the thinnest fabric I could find, and then I ripped out the lining.”

“Isabel!” Maria exclaimed, “It’s going to turn transparent when it gets wet.”

Isabel smiled and nodded in agreement.

“Alex is going to see a boob! Alex is going to see a boob!” Liz chanted, with Maria joining in.

“If he wants to,” Isabel sighed.

“Oh, I don’t believe this,” Maria joined in laughingly. “It’s about time.”

“Come on Maria,” Liz said, grabbing her arm. “Lets get out of here before Alex gets back.”

“One more thing,” Isabel asked tentatively. “Can we agree on ten o’clock?”

“What?” Liz exclaimed. “You’re going to fool around with your boyfriend, but you want us to have a curfew?”

“No Liz,” Maria laughed. “I think she is asking us to not come back until after ten, right?”

Isabel nodded in agreement, blushing.

“Wow!” Liz said. “I didn’t know you guys blushed.”

Lets be honest Liz,” Isabel answered. “You didn’t think the Ice Princess could blush. A lot has changed in the past couple of months.”

Their banter was interrupted by Alex’s return. He looked at the three women, a little confused at their laughter.

Liz headed out, stopping to hug her friend. “Have fun Alex.”

Maria was next. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” she said laughing.

They watched the girls leave and then Isabel turned to her boyfriend, “Alex, will you do me a favor while I go out and turn on the hot tub?”

“Sure Izzy, whatever you want, but turn it on?” Alex questioned. “Aren’t we going out to the public spa out by the pool?”

Isabel looked down and pivoted on her hips. “No Sweetie. I picked this room because it has a private hot tub on the back patio.” She bit her lower lip. “It’s very private.”

Alex gulped, his throat suddenly dry.

“And for the favor,” she raised her hand, a small garment dangling from the tip of her finger. “I want you to change into these for me.”

Alex took the proffered Speedo and held it in front of himself. “Izzy, I can’t wear this! It doesn’t cover anything. I mean, I have hair, and bulges, and,,, and,,, I can’t wear this!”

Isabel slowly walked up to him. “I know that Sweetie,” she whispered before kissing him gently. “But I really want you to wear it tonight, for me. You’re my man, hair and bulges and all, okay?”

“You really want me to put it on?” he asked disbelieving.

“Yes,” she said breathlessly. “I’ll be right back to get you,” she concluded, running her hand down his chest.

Isabel returned to the room and took Alex by the hand. “Come on Sweetie, the tub’s ready.”

“Great,” Alex replied. “It’s going to feel wonderful to just sit back and let the hot water soak in.” He looked his girlfriend in the eyes while rolling his shoulders. “I’ve been kind of tense lately, you know?”

“Oh Sweetie,” Isabel purred, pulling him close. “I think we can take care of that for you.” She reached up and kissed him on the cheek.

Alex was stunned when he saw the hot tub. Isabel had converted the back patio to an enchanted garden. Every niche on the high privacy walls, and every flat surface throughout the patio was covered by fragrant flowers and burning candles. After taking it all in he turned back to his mate. Despite the lack of artificial light, it was bright enough for him to see the love in her eyes. “My God Izzy, this is fantastic.”

“I’m glad you like it,” she replied, watching his eyes as she dropped her robe. She was now standing in front of him wearing a tiny string bikini that would cause a riot if she wore it in public. The cups of her top barely covered her nipples and areoles. Due to a comment of Alex made several weeks ago, that he loved the way she looked naturally, she did not have an all over tan. Broad stripes of white skin were visible on each side of both cups. If he had looked closely, he would have also seen several pale hairs poking out from the sides of her brief bottom.

Alex was a gentleman. It wasn’t his nature to stare at a woman, but he had never been faced with such a sight. While he tried to look his girlfriend in her eyes, his eyes could not help but be drawn to her fantastic breasts as well. While they had shared several wonderful times where he had touched her, this was the first time that she was offering herself for his visual pleasure. Alex looked at her, his eyes wide. “Izzy, you are so beautiful. I mean, I know you’re beautiful, but,,,” he looked at her breasts, with their rapidly hardening nipples. “Wow!”

Isabel loved this about Alex. His innocence and sense of wonder. The look on his face reminded her of a child finding a tree full of presents on Christmas morning. She thanked God that she was the one who would take this journey of exploration with him.

Alex reached for the knot behind her neck, his hand trembling. He hesitated, looking her in the eyes. Instead of displeasure, he was surprised to see gentle encouragement. He pulled the string and watched as the fabric caressed her as it fell away. His eyes bulged, and his mouth opened wide. “Ohhh!” he exclaimed as her delicate pink nipples were exposed.

Isabel reached up and untied the lower strap of her top, and then took him by the hand. “Come on in Sweetie.” She led him into the hot tub. They settled down on the higher set of seats, which allowed Isabel’s breasts, Alex’s new playthings, to lie right at water level. Isabel smiled as she watched Alex lean in to take a close look at her nipples. His excitement was contagious, Isabel was gushing with affection. “Are you still tense Sweetie?” she teased.

“Huh?” he asked, not really hearing her. He slowly reached and took her breast in his hand. He lifted it and felt it’s weight. He dipped his hand into the water, and ran his moistened fingertips in little circles across her skin. “So smooth,” he said softly. “So warm, so soft.”

Alex’s caresses were driving Isabel crazy. She closed her eyes and tossed her head back, reveling in his touch. Despite the fact that Isabel had made steady progress in raising Alex’s confidence in their relationship, he had still exercised restraint with her physically. How could he be so restrained and at the same time affect her so deeply?

Alex tweaked her nipple with his fingertips. He watched amazed, as every time he tugged her nipple, stretching it, it remained a little bigger when he let go of it. Even her areoles were swelling. He leaned forward and extended his tongue.

Isabel saw stars as she felt him lick her. She wrapped her hands around his head and pulled him closer. “Yes Sweetie. Yes! More, suck me,” she panted.

Alex reveled in the pleasure that he was giving to Isabel. If he could do nothing more for the rest of his life than make her happy, he would die a happy man. He scraped her nipple with the lightest touch of his teeth. He then switched to her other breast and opened his mouth wide, and sucked her nipple deep into his mouth, the suction causing it to swell.

Isabel was past words, the pleasure she was receiving had knocked all coherent thoughts from her mind. The feeling of him caressing her. The sense of suction tugging at her nipples, almost overloading her nerves. The heat of his mouth, the texture of his hair in her hands. Her world, well worlds had collapsed to just the two of them.

Alex wanted to do more. To make her feel more. To give her more pleasure. He had his hands full with her wonderful breast when he remembered that she was more than just a beautiful body.

The connection was total and instantaneous. He looked around her mind, needing a moment to get oriented. Moments later he noticed Trude sitting astride a bundle of nerves as large as a telephone cable.

“Hey Alex,” Trude asked. “Do you know where this goes?

“No, why?” he replied.

“Well, you know when you send her love, or calmness through your connection?” she asked.

“Yea,” Alex replied warily.

“Well that kind of generic thought can be sent to anywhere in her mind,” Trude explained, “But if you are going to send her pleasure and passion, it has to go right here.”

The nerve bundle was throbbing with energy. “This is where you want it to end up. Here let me show you.”

“What?” Alex asked, a little distracted with what he and Isabel were doing in real life to pay close attention to Trude.

“Alex!” Trude commanded. “Hold up your hand and aim right here,” she said, patting the nerves she was sitting on. “Now, think of how much you love her.”

An energy charge started to build on Alex’s hand.

“That’s a good start,” Trude praised him. “But I’m sure you can do much better. Think of your future together, think of how you want to protect her, think of how she fought for you when Tess was hurting you,,,”

Alex poured everything he had ever felt into the energy charge and quickly lost control of it.

“Wait!” Trude shouted in panic. “Let me get out of the way,,,”

Isabel’s climax was instantaneous as her entire body went rigid. It was if her entire body had been electrified. She was past the point of coherent thought, a white hot current connecting her center and her mind, with bolts of power radiating from the sides until her entire being felt like it was on fire.

Alex continued his caresses, but raised his head and watched as her climax consumed her, taking his own pleasure in the look of ecstasy on her face, and the little noises she was making. His caresses evolved from sexual to loving as she returned to earth, and by the time she opened her eyes and looked at him he was holding her close and running his hands through her hair.

“Ummm,” Isabel moaned. “I don’t think I’m ever going to recover from that,” she added.

“Oh my God,” he gasped, and quickly made a connection.

Trude was in a pool of sweat. Her eyes were crossed and she was muttering in three languages. “Das ist mein Freund. Das ist mein Alex,” (That’s my boyfriend. That’s my Alex.) she panted.

Alex decided that she would be okay in a day or two, so he quickly broke the connection.

After several minutes of cuddling, Isabel looked at Alex. “Stand up,” she commanded.

“What!” Alex exclaimed.

“I want you to stand up,” Isabel repeated. She wasn’t flirting, and she wasn’t shy. She was looking him right in the eyes.

“Izzy,” Alex responded quietly, looking anywhere but at her. “I can’t. Give me a couple of minutes, maybe.”

Isabel didn’t hold anything back. “Sweetie, you have a hard-on. I want to see it. I love you, and you love me, and this is the next step for us.”

Alex still hesitated.

Isabel reached and gently took Alex’s chin in her hand. “Sweetie, are you scared or embarrassed?” She looked down at her still bare breast, “I mean, after all,,,”

Alex slowly stood until his Speedo broke the water. Isabel watched as the water streamed off his chest, until his naval was visible. It was surrounded with dark hair, and as he continued to rise she noticed that he had a passion line, a line of hair descending from his naval into the top of his suit. Finally he stood erect, the front of the suit bulged.

“Sweetie,” Isabel teased. “You look like you’re folded in half. It looks so uncomfortable.”

“Yea, maybe,” he teased. “For some reason I’ve been a little preoccupied. I haven’t noticed.”

“We’ll just have to fix that,” she said, reaching for his waistband.

Alex’s eyes bulged as she started to slide his suit down. He froze in place, allowing her to do as she wished. It was the least he could do for her after she had made herself so available to him, but as soon as he stepped out of his suit, he sat back down. “That was Fred,” he added.

“I kind of figured that out,” Isabel she teased. “But tell me something, Why do you call it Fred?”

“Well,,,,” Alex explained. I have to call it,,, him, something, so I call him Fred. What do you call yours?”

“We’re not going to go there,” she answered. After a brief pause she continued, “Sweetie,” she added tenderly, “You’re beautiful. I can’t believe that someday you’re going to touch me with him, you’re going to penetrate me,,,” she noticed her mate cringe. “What’s wrong Sweetie?”

Alex shuddered, “Just the thought of being penetrated,,,”

“Sweetie,” Isabel teased, slapping his shoulder gently. “It’s different for girls. You guys are the stickers, and we girls are the stickie.” Their eyes met, and Isabel continued earnestly, “I can’t wait for the day that you take me, and make me your woman forever.”

Alex took both of her hands in his, and responded with the same level of intensity, “Isabel Amanda Evans, you are my woman, and nothing will ever change that.”

“No Sweetie,” Isabel answered, kissing him gently, “I am your girlfriend. I am not going to be a woman until you make me one.”

They continued to cuddle and whisper endearments to each other. Several minutes later Isabel added, “You know, there’s only one more thing I want to do to make this evening perfect.”

“Really? What’s that?” he questioned.

Isabel reached into the water. “Hi Fred,” she declared wrapping her hand around Alex. “I’m Isabel, and I’m tired of waiting for us to be formally introduced.”

Alex bolted upright at her first touch, which was good, as his head was above water when he sucked in an enormous draught of air. If he had been any lower he may have drowned.

“Sweetie,” Isabel teased. “Just sit back and let me do this for you. You said you were tense, and I promised to make you feel better.” She found that the water prevented her from moving her hand, so she used a small burst of power and changed the water against her hand to lotion.

Alex threw his head back, and let the pleasure wash over him. “Isabel, you don’t have to do this,” he panted.

“Yes I do,” she whispered breathlessly. “I want you to feel the same pleasure you give me. You’re not going to tell me to stop, are you?” she whispered into his ear, following that with a nibble.

“No,” he sighed. “You’ve convinced me. I’ve never felt anything like that before. Don’t stop.”

Isabel desperately wanted his first climax with her; well not counting the time they shared a dream, to be as intense as the one he had just given her. She poured all the love and passion she could muster through their connection.

“Izzy,,,” Alex gasped, “I’m losing control.”

“Good!” she replied, reaching for his nads. “That’s the whole idea.”

Ales started to squirm, overpowered by the sensations of her hands and mind. Not able to take it anymore, his whole body went rigid. “Aaaggghhh,” he moaned.

“Oh no you don’t!” Isabel exclaimed. “You’re not getting out of this that easy.” She poured love and power into him, prolonging his pleasure.

Now it was Isabel’s turn to take care of him as he recovered. They continued to chat and caress each other until Alex turned serious.

“Izzy?” he asked hesitatingly. “Can I ask you something?”

“Anything, Sweetie,” she said tenderly. “I’ve been expecting it after this morning.”

He looked her in the eyes, and spoke gently, “How do we know when the time is right?”

“Oh Sweetie,” she replied, leaning forward and kissing him tenderly. “Have you been driving yourself crazy trying to figure this out?”

“Well, yea,” he responded instantly. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“In case you haven’t noticed,” she responded, looking down and biting her lip, “I’ve been after you for a while now.” She took a breath. “Sweetie, we could discuss this all night, but instead I’m going to ask you a question. But you have to be perfectly honest, Okay?”

“Yea,” he answered.

“Promise?” she pressed. “I don’t want to hurt you either.”

Alex replied by connecting. “Promise.”

“Have I been pressing you too hard?” she asked with trepidation.

“No Izzy,” he responded tenderly. “I have loved everything we have done together.”

“Have you felt uncomfortable or rushed?” she continued. “How about tonight?”

“Izzy,” Alex said tenderly. “What we did tonight was wonderful. In fact I wouldn’t change anything we have done together.”

“There’s your answer Sweetie,” Izzy answered his original question. “As long as we go slow and we love each other, we’ll be alright. We’ll know when the time is right.”

“Good,” Alex said, relieved. “I had to know, can you understand that?”

“Yes I can,” Isabel responded, kissing him. “I know you’ll never do anything to hurt me.” Her voice turned teasing. “But know this, I’m not going to give up chasing you. I don’t want to be a virgin when I turn eighteen.”

“Eighteen?” Alex gasped. “That’s in,,,”

“Rats,” Isabel pouted. “That’s still a couple of months.” She turned towards him, “We don’t have to wait that long, do we?”

“We’ll see,” Alex replied, kissing her.

**********
Alex was asleep, lying on his side. He was curled into a ball, the events of the night having drained him. Isabel was spooned against his back, not yet asleep. She was enjoying a rare opportunity to drink in his essence while he was at his most relaxed. She held her face to his back, feeling the heat of his body on her cheek, and smelling his special scent. She listened to his soft and even breathing. She did not consciously realize it, but her heart was beating in time with his, synchronized through their ever present connection.

Isabel was so engrossed in her own little world that she momentarily forgot that they were not alone. When she heard the door unlock, she raised herself up onto her elbow. She brought up her hand and built a charge of energy, prepared to defend her mate.

Maria was able to see Isabel in the dim light of the room. Her curiosity about her friend’s evening together turned to panic as she saw the white glow on her friend’s hand. She quickly backed out of the room.

“What’s wrong?” Liz asked.

“Word of advice,” Maria replied, her voice cracking. “Never walk in on a sleeping Czechoslovakian.”

“Izzy, it’s okay,” Alex said soothingly through their connection. He reached up, placed his hand on his protector’s arm, and lowered it. “Come on in,” Alex said softly.

“Careful where you point that thing,” Maria teased.

“I’m so sorry,” Isabel said quietly.

“Hey, you would do the same for us,” Liz said to calm her friend. She turned to Alex with a grin, “Have a good time?”

“Yes we did,” he responded straight faced. “The hot tub was very relaxing.”

“Come on girlfriend,” Maria pushed. “Spill!”

“Good night Maria,” Alex sighed.

“I’m sorry I woke you,” Isabel apologized. “I didn’t think I made that much noise.”

“You didn’t make any noise,” Alex explained. “I felt your panic when the door opened.”

“Well, I shouldn’t have awakened you,” she continued.

“Why’s that?” he teased. “You going to hog all of the snuggle time?”

“Who me?” she teased back.

“Good,” he replied, “Then roll over so I can do some laying on of hands.”

“You know what I love about you?” Isabel asked as she moved as he asked.

“What’s that?” Alex asked softly.

“You’re so easy to please,” she replied, settling into his strong arms. [I/]

End part 1
TBC

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