Fan Fic and More

OMG! This is wonderful, this is beyond wonderful!!!! Now why couldn't the actual TV show have gone this way? I love this! :D I love how Michael and Liz are such good friends, love how Isabel and Alex seems to have this insight into one another and I adore the relationship Tess has with Kyle and Alex! (aside from this little ending...we shall have to talk about that missy!)

I sat and read this in one go. Took me two hours and my sleep but it was so worth it! Reading this I got the funny feeling the Michael is a lot like how he was a kid on the show...you know last to hatch and very scared to trust. He was the last to reach outto Max and it seems thesame here. I love how all the characters still have the "orignal qualities" in them and yet you made them your own.

I wish Michael would open up and tell the others but I understand why he's afraid to. And please, someone get Isabel to trust Alex some more! I would love to see Maria and Michael...collide lol as well. :

Now i just hope the bullet story works out and please don't let Tess go on the same I-want-max-and-want-to-have-his-lovechild kick again.

Aside from that distrubing new mix this is absolutely wonderful!!

Dying for more! Don't make me beg cuz I can stalk you for this you know

Wow, Rida, thanks so much for your feedback! You make me feel like I'm actually acheiving what I've really set out to do, so thank you sweetie!

And you're so right, Roselle, the silly boys and their egos!

Anyhow, I just wanted you guys to know that in lieu of an update, which I unfortunately don't have for you, I've opened up a spoiler/discussion thread for this story, so feel free to head over there and ask questions if you want... I may be persuaded to give away a secret or two... we'll see, though!

bump

Part 15

Tess’ eyes flew open wide when she realized what name she’d said. She searched her name frantically for what that dream had been about, but it seemed the harder she tried to remember it, the more vague it became. She couldn’t remember anything, actually, and especially not anything that had to do with Max Evans.

She hadn’t even seen Max since the other day in the Crashdown, things had just been too hectic, but she supposed it wasn’t too weird that Isabel’s moony-eyed brother would show up in one of her dreams, considering she did just find out that Isabel and Max were like her.

Still, the way she’d said his name… that was her Kyle voice. More specifically, that was her If-I-were-stuck-on-a-desert-island-and-could-only-bring-one-person-with-me-it-would-be-you-Kyle voice. But Max Evans… Tess laughed, feeling the apprehension of the last few moments lifting away from her. Max Evans! That was just absurd. She rolled out of bed, running a hand through her blonde curls, and as she passed by the mirror on her wall, she gave her reflection a “not gonna happen” look.

When she got downstairs she saw Alex waiting for her by the front door, which was odd, most mornings she was ready to go before he was even up and out of bed. “Did I sleep in?” she asked, as she was walking into the kitchen to grab herself a yogurt and an apple to take for lunch.

“No,” Alex grumbled, annoyed, as he followed her. “Some moron called my cell at six-thirty in the morning. I couldn’t get back to sleep.”

Tess frowned at the weirdness of the situation. “Who was it?”

“That’s the worst part. It was a prank call. Some freak asking me if I believe in aliens. All Caller-ID said was ‘new number.’”

The wrinkle in Tess’ forehead deepened. “That’s weird. The exact same thing happened to Kyle when I was on the phone with him last night. He got call-waiting and said it was some weird guy asking about aliens.” She shrugged, rolling her eyes. “Must be going around. The things stupid people do with their time.”

“Yeah, no kidding.”

Tess was relieved that when they swung in front of the Valenti house that her heart gave a familiar flutter when her goofy, ridiculously handsome boyfriend came out and towards them at a light jog. It settled once and for all the matter that her dream had been nothing more than a byproduct of finding out that yes, there actually was a male on the planet that was the same species as herself. It didn’t change the things that mattered, though.

The moment Kyle was in the backseat he was brandishing something in front of Alex and Tess’ eyes, a triumphant look on his face. “You guys see this morning’s paper?”

Alex held a hand out to steady the waving newspaper and held it so that both he and Tess could see.

“VANISHING” BULLET FOUND IN CRASHDOWN CAFE

“Nice,” Alex commented, and Tess smiled at Kyle as he took the paper back and Alex put the car in gear.

“Did I tell you it would work, or did I tell you?” Kyle asked, grinning, before reading aloud, “‘Claims that a ‘magic’ or ‘vanishing’ bullet was fired in the Crashdown Café in the September 19th incident when a customer argument got out of hand were put to rest yesterday as Jeff Parker, the Crashdown’s owner reported to the Sheriff’s department that the bullet had been found in a crevice behind a door. Investigations have started in locating the gunman, but as no injuries were sustained during the incident, Parker is not currently pressing charges.’ That should settle things for that Trilling guy, huh Alex?”

Alex shook his head quickly, and sent a warning look at Kyle in the rearview mirror, but Tess’ suspicions had already been raised.

“What Trilling guy?” she asked rounding on her brother, and then her boyfriend.

Kyle, realizing his mistake, turned his eyes from her. “Um… nothing. Nobody.”

Tess rolled her eyes. “You are so pathetic sometimes,” she said, flatly. “I thought the whole bullet thing was just a precautionary thing. Alex?” she prodded.

Alex glanced at her sidelong, and had no choice but to answer her. “There was this guy freaking out about the bullet. He thought it was alien-related. Wanted to get to the bottom of it.”

“He was driving Dad crazy, trying to get him to look into it more,” Kyle offered a little weakly from the backseat.

Tess’ mouth hung open in surprise. “And neither one of you thought you should tell me?” she asked, not sure if she was hurt or angry. “Don’t you think maybe I had a right to know?”

“He was a loon, Tessa. A crazy alien-addict. Nobody would have taken him seriously anyhow.”

“Obviously you two took him a little seriously,” Tess argued, giving her brother a stern look. She wasn’t sure if she was actually angry or just surprised at what she was hearing.

“Look, he was just a pest,” Kyle said from the back seat. “He was driving Dad crazy with phone calls about this bullet.”

“And that’s it?” she questioned, looking back and forth between Kyle and Alex’s faces carefully. “You think this will convince him?”

Alex nodded. “Absolutely.” He quirked a grin at her, but she had a feeling he wasn’t quite as sure as pretended to be, and all his reassurances that everything was going to be okay didn’t settle the uneasy feeling in her stomach.

*************

Maria couldn’t stop herself from glancing towards the back of the classroom for the third time in the last ten minutes. Math had never been her favorite subject, though she wasn’t half bad at it, really—it was science that she just couldn’t seem to master—but today she could hardly focus on the problems in front of her. As her eyes strayed once again to the corner where Michael Guerin sat, she had to suppress a groan.

He was dressed in his usual, a black t-shirt and black jeans, and obviously wasn’t even pretending to bother with his schoolwork. Instead, he was sprawled out in his desk-chair, one leg protruding halfway into the aisle, and he was sketching something intently. She wasn’t surprised when Max had told her and Isabel that Michael might be trouble. Apparently he’d threatened Maxwell the day before. Not that Max had said it like that, but that’s what it had sounded like to her.

He was just so… objectionable. His hair, his less-than-stunning sense of style, his attitude, his bad manners, all of it got under her skin. And now he was digging around trying to figure out his little science buddy was hiding from him. The two of them were a little odd, if you asked her. They’d been friends since elementary school, even though to all appearances they had absolutely nothing in common. Still, as far back as she bothered to remember, she had memories of dainty little Liz Parker being followed around by a brooding, skulky shadow called Michael Guerin. There was a time when they didn’t even speak to anybody else, not that anyone in particular wanted to talk to them—well, other than Max, possibly—and while Liz had come out of her shell for the most part in high school, Michael still treated every living thing but Liz Parker like they were the enemy or something. He was always sending out these vibes… like warnings, to stay away.

He wasn’t the type you wanted nosing around, in any case. Max had said that Liz was taking care of it, and maybe she was, but she still had a bad feeling about Michael. He seemed like the territorial type, and if he saw Liz as part of his territory, that could be trouble for Max and Isabel. Maria wasn’t about to interfere with Liz’s “taking care of it,” but that didn’t mean she couldn’t try to figure exactly how much of a threat Mr. Guerin was going to be towards her friends. She was working with him, after all.

She pulled her planner out to double-check her schedule at the Crashdown for the day, but the moment she caught sight of the date she froze, and in a flash all thoughts of Michael Guerin were gone. Her entire body went tense and a familiar feeling of dread overtook her. With all the recent drama going on in the Czechoslovakian side of things, she’d completely overlooked the fact that it was already the baleful last week of the month.

She wondered momentarily if she could somehow get Isabel to invite her over for the weekend, but even the thought of all the explanations and excuses it would take seemed exhausting. Frankly, this was part of her life that Max and Isabel would never fully understand, no matter how they tried. Besides, she couldn’t do that to her mom again. Last time she’d found her at two in the morning, sobbing at the kitchen table. Why they’d ever thought this arrangement was in everyone’s best interest was beyond her. For Maria, and for her mom as well, she knew, this was nothing more than a monthly date with their own miniature hell.

*************

“Isabel. Hey, Isabel.”

Isabel didn’t bother with trying to figure out who the voice was from, the tone—that strange combination of almost-swaggering and almost-desperate that seemed to define the entire male population of West Roswell—told her enough.

She was pulled out of her ruminations by a hand catching on her arm, half-turning her around, where she was surprised to see that her out-of-breath captor was none other than Alex Whitman, who gave her a grin in return for her own affronted face.

At the sight of Alex, her heart sped up ever so slightly. A good part of her knew that she could trust him now, that he wasn’t out to reveal her secret to the world, but old fears die hard. They were still on the school grounds, though, and on the school grounds, Isabel Evans was queen. Alex Whitman, on the other hand, was practically a nonentity.

“Please remove your hand,” she said, glancing disdainfully at where it still rested on her arm.

“Oh, oh. Sorry,” Alex said, pulling his hand away quickly, and then he did something that Isabel somehow hadn’t expected him to do. He launched into a short, rehearsed, prologue that Isabel was all too familiar with. “Listen, I was just thinking that maybe if you don’t have anything going on this weekend, there’s this retrospective film festival going on at the—”

“Wait a minute, wait,” Isabel interrupted, holding up a hand. “Are you seriously trying to ask me out on a date?”

Alex paused, looking confused, as if she didn’t have every right in the world to be glaring at him the way she currently was. “Well, ‘date’ is a strong word. I just thought that maybe in light of recent events and revelations that we might want to get to know each other better. You know, maybe hang out…” he trailed off as she continued to glare.

She couldn’t believe it. She honestly could not believe it. Whenever he’d spoken to her before, it had always seemed like he was making some kind of power play, looking at her as if he could see straight through her, and here he was, begging for a date just like every other pathetic lowlife at school. And that meant that she ruled the game now.

She gave him a look up and down, and then squared off with him, speaking in a low voice. “Look, Alex, we are not pals,” she said, sneering the word as if it was something distasteful. “We are not chums, we’re not buddies, we’re not mates. We’re barely even allies, and that’s not by choice. And if you think that just because you know something about me, just because you’re one of precisely three guys who know my secret, including my brother, does not mean that I’m just going to fall into your arms as soon you ask me to. As far as I’m concerned, you’re still Alex Whitman, Grade-A Nothing.”

Alex was silent for a moment before letting out a low whistle and nodding, a kind of wooden understanding crossing his face. “And you’re still Isabel Evans, Coldest Queen of the Comets. Right. Gotcha.” She watched him suspiciously for a moment, knowing that he wasn’t done, and he wasn’t. “You know, I just thought… maybe we could be friends.”

“Isabel Evans doesn’t need friends,” she said quickly, and then froze, realizing her slight mistake.

Alex seemed to catch the third-person reference also, and it changed his whole demeanor. He raised an eyebrow, clearing his throat. He almost looked amused. “Well, if, uh, Isabel Evans thinks she doesn’t need friends, then I’m sure Isabel Evans knows what she’s talking about, doesn’t she?” He gave her a mock salute. “See you around, Iz.”

Isabel stood stock-still for almost a full minute, watching him walk away, working her mouth noiselessly before she caught herself and bit her lips together. She didn’t understand how it had happened, but Alex had already regained the upper hand on her. She knew now that she didn’t need to worry about his exposing her to the public or any nonsense like that, but she was also sure of something else. Despite what she’d thought earlier, somehow the rules in their little game hadn’t changed at all.

*************

Liz was just buttoning her uniform for her afternoon shift at the Crashdown when the phone on her dresser rang. She contemplated not answering it, since she was already almost late, but with one hand still working the buttons on her uniform, she reached out and picked up the phone with the other. She opened her mouth to say hello but was cut off.

“Do you believe in aliens?”

Liz’s jaw dropped, possibly for the first time in her life, and she sucked in a breath. “Who is this?” she asked, hoping her voice sounded more affronted than scared.

And then there was an audible sigh on the other end of the line, and the voice was much more pleasant when it went on. “Finally. Most people hang up before I can explain myself.”

Liz paused, wondering if she should hang up herself, but before she did, the voice went on.

“You see, I’m a psychology student at Las Cruces University, and I’m doing a study as to how life in Roswell affects whether or not people are open to the possibility of extra-terrestrial life, but I wanted to find out people’s initial reactions, which is why I started out that way.”

“What are you finding so far?” Liz asked, intrigued despite herself. Psychology was one of the more iffy subjects so far as she was concerned, but there was science to it, and that couldn’t be denied.

“Well, as I said, most people hang up on me immediately, which leads me to surmise that they believe it to be simply a prank call, which then leads me to surmise that the question is so ludicrous to people that they can’t even seriously consider the possibility, which leads me to surmise—”

“That’s an awful lot of surmising,” Liz broke in, with a doubtful voice.

“Well, this is actually my first semester as a psych student,” he admitted in an embarrassed voice that brought a smile to her face. “Listen,” he said, his voice turning to a wheedling tone, “since you’ve pretty much got my life history here, would you mind taking a little survey? I know it’s probably the least favorite question in the English language,” he said, rushing the last part as a disclaimer.

“Well…” Liz hesitated. It was true, she didn’t really want to take the time to bother, but he did have a nice voice, and she knew that the main reason these types of studies turned out faulty was because the people truly capable of providing a well-rounded response just hung up most of the time. “How many questions do you have?” she asked, glancing at the clock on her dresser.

“Just four, ma’am,” he said, hopefully.

Liz shook her head, smiling. “Okay, then, but make it fast.”

“Okay, then,” he said, and she could hear the grin in his voice. “To repeat the first question, do you believe in aliens?”

Liz swallowed at the slightly sour taste that question brought up, despite the circumstances, and tried to smile. “I think there’s no reason to assume that aliens don’t exist,” she said, thankfully sounding casual, even to herself.

“Alrighty, that sounds fair. Now, for number two. Do you think it’s possible that there are aliens walking among us on Earth?”

Liz paused, suddenly unsure again if this was the right thing to do or not. “I… think that’s a pretty silly idea,” she said at last, “but I guess nothing’s impossible.”

“Do you frequently watch movies featuring aliens or alien invasions?”

Liz laughed at that one. “Not really, no.”

“And last one,” the coaxing voice on the other end of the line said. “Do you believe that alien life on Earth would be a threat to national security, to be dealt with in a no-mercy, no-questions-asked regime?”

Liz’s mouth went dry as unbidden images of Michael, Max, Isabel and Tess being dragged away by some sort of secret government agency. She felt sick.

“Ma’am?”

Liz swallowed. “I don’t think that sounds very just,” she said quietly. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m late to work.”

“No problem. Thank you for your time, Ms. Parker.”

Liz clicked the “Off” button on the wireless and tossed it onto her bed. Sitting down heavily, she closed her eyes and leaned her elbows on her knees, letting her head rest in her hands for a moment as she tried to rub the unseen images away from her eyes. It wasn’t after several deep breaths that she was hit with a sick realization.

Not only had she never told the man on the phone her name, her private line had never, ever been listed in the phone book.

What had she just done?

i'm not sure i like liz very much. tess hold on to that kyle. i love how alex handled isabel. enjoy your trip

Not only had she never told the man on the phone her name, her private line had never, ever been listed in the phone book.

What had she just done?

Liz is right to be concerned! Somebody is definitely fishing for information, and they undoubtedly have an agenda!

Great parts! :D

AN: At long last, huh? Sorry this has taken so long!


Part 16

Liz headed downstairs on wobbly legs. Part of her was busy reminding herself that she hadn’t actually given out any information on the phone. The questions had all been either opinion or hypothesis, and there was a chance—though slim—that he really was just an inept Psych student and he’d gotten her number from some school roster or something.

Not that she was anywhere near convincing herself that that was a likely possibility. But still.

She couldn’t deny that she felt a rush of relief when she saw Max sitting in his usual booth, sitting with a textbook in front of him and a half empty glass of the Crashdown’s special-dyed green Sprite next to him. It wasn’t like Max was a permanent fixture in the Crashdown Café, but he did come in most days, and it was nice seeing him there.

Liz felt a slight blush as she remembered their connection from the other day, where she’d gotten the distinct impression that he came to the diner specifically to see her.

Her heart warmed a bit more as she noticed Alex sitting at the counter. He gave her a smile and a wave when he saw her, which made Liz smile back. She would never admit it out loud, or even to herself for that matter, but being the sole consort to Michael’s secrets had put a lot of pressure on her. She’d felt responsible enough for him when he was just her basically parentless best friend, and when she’d learned about his true origins the task had seemed to double, despite the fact that they’d never had any problems keeping things hidden.

That didn’t mean she regretted it, or that she’d even think of trading her friendship with Michael for anything—she wouldn’t. But it was nice to know that for once she could actually talk about alien-related things with someone who wasn’t an alien. Not that she knew Alex or even Kyle very well just yet, and she wasn’t even sure if Maria wanted to get to know her, really, but there was the possibility, at least.

She glanced nervously at towards the kitchen. She really was late for her shift, but the sooner she told someone about this, the better, whatever it was.

She noticed Max trying not to look at her as she walked over towards his booth, and smiled despite herself. Quiet as he was, somehow she’d never imagined him to be the bashful type. Her smile faded as she slipped into the booth across from him, though, as she thought of what she had to tell him.

He looked up at her in surprise. Not quite deer-in-the-headlights, but close.

“Liz.”

“Hi, Max.”

He swallowed slightly. “Hi. What’s up?”

She hesitated. She’d known Michael’s secret for three years, and never had to come to him like this, but now after only knowing about Max and Isabel a few days, here she was, her stomach churning with worry.

She cleared her throat. “Max… I think I might have done something stupid.”

Max straightened in his seat, immediate concern on his face. “You mean…” he glanced back at the kitchen, “Michael…?” he guessed.

Liz shook her head emphatically, annoyed despite herself. Not necessarily at Max, but at Michael’s stubbornness, too. “No, no it’s got nothing to do with him,” she said quickly, and went on to tell brief him on the bizarre phone conversation she’d just had.

When she’d finished, Max looked as if he didn’t know quite what to tell her. “You’re sure you didn’t say your name?”

She nodded. “Positive. Really, Max, I don’t know if this is anything at all. He didn’t ask me anything specific to the other day, or anything at all, really. I just felt like I should tell you just in case…”

Max nodded, and rubbed a hand over his face quickly, which she’d noticed him doing occasionally when he looked as if he didn’t know exactly what to say. She realized for the first time that it wasn’t as if Max really knew what he was doing, either. They were all just going to have to figure this thing out as it came. He sighed. “I’ll ask around… see if anybody else has been getting calls like this or not. If other people at school have been getting them then we probably don’t have anything to worry about. If not… I guess all we can really do is—”

“Act natural,” Liz finished for him, nodding. “I know. I just—I’m sorry, Max. I should have just hung up on him. I don’t know what I was thinking, I just—”

Max laid a hand on her own, which were fretting with a napkin in front of her, and she paused, feeling a spark, as some of his quiet strength seemed to seep into her. “Liz, don’t apologize. None of this is your fault. Firstly, people make mistakes, and secondly, we don’t even know if this is a problem yet. Just relax, and we’ll take things one step at a time.”

Liz lifted her eyes from where their hands sat, joined, and looked up at Max, suddenly calm. She nodded. “You’re right. Thank you, Max. I should… I’m kind of late for my shift,” she said, nodding towards the back as she stood up, slowly pulling her hands from under his.

Max seemed embarrassed again as he pulled his own hand back, and nodded. “Anytime.”

Putting on her waitress face, with a special spark in her eye, she smiled at him. “Would you like a refill on your drink?”

*************

As Maria wiped down a recently-vacated spot at the counter, she wondered idly how Jeff Parker managed to keep the Crashdown going during school hours. There were one or two older waitresses she’d seen in passing, a woman named Janice and the crabby-faced one, Agnes, and she knew that Mr. Parker waited tables himself occasionally, but now that Liz was down here—late, but Maria wasn’t about to tattle on the boss’ daughter—she was flitting from one table to another quickly and easily, like a pro.

She bit down on her lip as a feeling she’d been fighting for days washed over her. Liz Parker didn’t know just how easy her life was. Sure, she’d had some troubles in school, kids could be cruel. But Maria would have traded all the school bullies in the world for the kind of life Liz had, her parents never far from reach, obviously happy with each other…

Maria shook the thought off, angry at herself. Her life wasn’t that bad. She wouldn’t trade anything in the world for her mother.

That wasn’t all, though. Max was her best friend, but there was no question as to whether or not he kept things from her. Max had always been a very private person, even around Maria herself, and he definitely wasn’t one to trust people without question, for obvious reasons. Still, after only a few short days of knowing the truth about him, Liz and Max were trading googly eyes back and forth with each other like it was nobody’s business.

Maria knew this was a big thing for him, having Liz know his secret, but at the same time, it worried her. He was letting himself go a little bit, which was good, Max needed to loosen the reigns on himself every now and again, but Isabel had been right, a lot was changing, fast, and they were going to need to watch themselves for a while.

“I don’t think that spot is going to get any cleaner, unless you plan on working your way clear through the varnish,” a voice broke into her thoughts. She looked up with an automatic glare, but Alex, who sat a few seats down, just offered her a smile. “Penny for your thoughts?” he asked, reaching into his pocket and sliding a copper coin across the bar towards her.

She picked it up doubtfully. “I know I haven’t worked here for very long, but I’m pretty sure that’s a lousy tip,” she said, smirking at him. Alex… he was probably a good guy.

Alex shrugged, grinning. It’s just this thing Tess and I started when we were kids.”

Maria nodded, the thought of him and Tess surprising her by making her smile. “So she’s really… and you’ve known. All this time.”

He shrugged again, nodding. “Since the day we found her. She couldn’t speak at first, so she connected to me without thinking about it, and that’s how we communicated until she picked up the language a couple of weeks later.”

“And your parents didn’t notice that?” Maria asked, frowning. She tried not to roll her eyes at herself. It wasn’t that she was a skeptic so much as… well, no, she was a skeptic.

Alex raised his eyebrows, but smiled easily. “What can I say, Tess is smart, always has been. She made it look like she was talking in my ear when she’d hold my hand and connect to me… What’s your story?” he asked, as if he were asking about the weather.

Some of the tension she’d been feeling earlier in the day had eased off, and Maria took a glance around the diner. Things had been slow all day, and with Liz the Wonder Waitress on the floor, things were well under control, so she leaned onto the counter, conspiratorial-like. “Max healed a cat in front of me when we were like, seven. He and I have been friends ever since. I kind of feel responsible for them, you know. I was always trying to protect them as kids… even though it’s not like I could really do anything.” She shrugged. “It sounds corny, but I guess I always felt like, I’m the only barrier between them and the people who might want to, I don’t know, hurt them. Or, at least I was.” Inadvertently, her eyes went to Liz again, but luckily Alex didn’t seem to notice.

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” he was agreeing with her. “You know, it explains some things, too.”

She looked back at him, raising an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“Well, you know, like when you punched Tommy Hilligan in the stomach that week in the fifth grade when he kept following Max around humming the theme to The Twilight Zone.”

Maria scrunched up her nose. “You remember that?”

“Are you kidding?” Alex asked, grinning. “That was the first school fight I ever saw. Plus, I’ll admit, bullies taken down a notch is kind of a subject near and dear to my heart.”

Maria smiled at the roundabout compliment, just as the bell over the door rang, announcing the arrival of a new customer. She and Alex both looked over in time to see Isabel and Tess, obviously back from shopping as they both carried a couple bags, chatting and smiling. They joined Max in his booth, Tess, curiously enough, choosing to sit next to him instead of opposite him as Isabel had done.

“What about Isabel?” Alex asked, nodding towards them. “You never seemed as close to her as you were Max.”

Maria shrugged. “She’s tougher than Max, by a lot. I guess she just never needed me the way he did.”

“So she’s harder to get close to,” he said, nodding almost as if he were verifying it to himself.

Something in his manner made her eyes narrow. “How close are you planning on getting to her? I mean, you’re not—wait, are you interested in her?” She guessed the answer by his lack of response, and rolled her eyes. “Typical male.” She’d thought maybe he’d be the type to notice something more about a girl than how long her legs were, but, no…

Alex shrugged, looking slightly miffed. “What?”

She shook her head. “Lemme just give you a heads-up, alright? You’ve got about as much chance of getting into her pants as you do, I don’t know, being killed by an evil alien.” She paused, catching sight of Tess, who was obviously trying to get her brother’s attention without having to shout at him across the restaurant. “Speaking of which, you’re being hailed.” She pulled a face. “And I just remembered that that’s part of my section.”

Alex didn’t answer her as he slid off his stool and headed for the booth where his sister sat, Maria not far behind him. She noticed him pause at the sight of Tess sitting next to Max, making the obvious choice for him to sit next to Isabel. Isabel barely masked a glare at him, and looked away, disinterestedly as Alex swallowed and sat down, as close to the edge of the seat—and as far away from Isabel—as he could manage. He gave Tess a questioning look, but she just shrugged at him, apparently not sure what the problem was.

“Hey, Max… Isabel,” he said, albeit uncomfortably.

“Hi,” Max offered, but Isabel obviously ignored him, shifting slightly away from him, even. Max gave Maria a questioning look, but she just shrugged, giving him her “I’ll explain later” look. “Would you guys like anything?” she asked, not bothering to fake a chirpy disposition for them as she pulled her order book out of the pocket of her silver Crashdown apron.

“I’m good with what I’ve got,” Max said, gesturing at the plate before him.

“Yeah, me too,” murmured Tess, glancing absently in Max’s direction, until Alex, brows furrowed, kicked her under the table, making her jump. She blinked at her brother a few times, then turned to Maria. “I mean, uh, I’ll have a cherry coke, please. With lime.”

Maria’s eyes narrowed at the little display between the two siblings, but as she didn’t know what to make of it, she turned to Alex, questioningly. He simply shook his head, still watching Tess uncertainly. The bell above the front entrance rang again, but Maria ignored it. “Isabel?” she tried.

“I’m not really hungry,” Isabel said, in a less-harsh voice than Maria was expecting, considering she was cold-shouldering Alex as best as she could try… then again, she had just been hanging out with Alex’s sister, so maybe she was trying to play nice. Or, at least indifferent. Which, for Isabel, was nice.

“Okay, so that’s one cherry coke with lime. That’s all?”

“How about a welcome home hug?”

At the sound of the voice behind her, she froze, dropping her pen and nearly losing grip of her order pad as well.

The room seemed to have gone silent as she turned slowly, and sure enough, there to greet her was a smug-looking Sean DeLuca.

He looked over her uniform, the skirt of which suddenly felt far, far too short to be wearing in public. “You know, M, this is really gonna put a damper on my fantasy of makin’ it with a Crashdown waitress.”

Maria recoiled at the thought. “Like one would even have you,” she made out, despite the confusion and shock that were still swirling their way through her.

He didn’t seem to hear her, though, and was looking past her. “Max Evans,” he said, his voice mildly—irritatingly—mocking. His eyes flitted over Tess and he snorted. “Seriously Max, what is it with you and blondes?” Before Maria could correct him on Tess’ status—or her own for that matter—Izzy finally spoke.

“Looks like Trouble walked back into Roswell.”

Automatically, Sean glanced across the table at the apparently sneering voice, and broke into a grin, his voice finally holding some real warmth. “Isabel Evans,” he said, looking her over appreciatively. “All grown up. I like it.”

A flare of annoyance hit Maria as Isabel almost blushed. “Shut up, Sean,” she said, through a satisfied smile. Alex and Tess were looking at each other confused in all the mess. Maria couldn’t blame them.

“Excuse us,” she said, giving the Whitmans a tight, apologetic smile. She heard Alex start to ask something as she clamped a hand around Sean’s arm and pulled him with her all the way to the break room. Tess’ soda would have to wait a minute.

“Hey, hey, lighten up, Ria,” he said, rubbing his arm when she finally let it go.

“Don’t call me that,” Maria snapped. Only Max was allowed to call her by her childhood nickname, and that was solely for the reason that he didn’t do it often. “What are you doing here?” He was supposed to be finishing up his sentence in an Albuquerque Correctional Facility. He had eighteen months to go. Her eyes went wide as an obligatory fear overpowered her annoyance for a moment. “You didn’t break out, did you?”

“Of course not!” he said, and she felt a tiny dart of guilt, knowing that she’d actually offended him. “Time off for good behavior. You forget that I’m actually a nice guy.”

She snorted. “Yeah, tell that to the guy you beat half to death.”

“I did not. He was milking it. Besides, he jumped me.”

“Because you stole his money,” she reminded him, her patience waning.

His face darkened. “I’ve told you, I won that money off a poker game. I thought at least you would believe me.”

“Right. You’re a saint.” She rolled her eyes and looked away, ignoring the small part of her that felt he was telling the truth. She decided to change the subject instead. “So where’s the hellion? Somewhere tormenting my mother, no doubt?” Her words were bitter. Every part of her was bitter when it came to Sean’s younger brother.

“Kevin’s at home,” he said, his look scolding her for what she’d said. “He’s got the flu or the chicken pox or something… Mom wouldn’t let him out of the house.”

“If only we could be so lucky every month,” Maria said, a sing-songy sarcasm in her voice.

“Cut that out,” Sean snapped. “Leave him alone. It’s not like it’s his fault we’ve got a screwed up family.”

“Isn’t it?” she demanded. She still didn’t get how their mothers could hate each other so much and still expect all the kiddies to get along. Okay, so she’d been friends with Sean when they were little, but that had been a long time ago.

“He’s just a kid, Maria.”

“If by ‘kid’ you mean ‘selfish, spoiled, unfeeling brat,’ then yeah, you’re right.”

Sean held up a hand. “Look, whatever. I didn’t come here to listen to this.”

“So why did you?”

There was definite hurt in his eyes now, but in true DeLuca style, Sean covered it with anger. “What do you expect? I’ve been locked up for two and a half years. I just wanted to see you, Ria. Is that so hard to believe?”

Her eyes flashed at him, but suddenly her throat was so tight she couldn’t even snap at him for calling her by that name again. She blinked hard a couple times, not willing to let him see tears if they came. It wasn’t that she hated Sean. She couldn’t, even if she wanted to. Things were just so complicated….

When she failed to answer him, though, Sean sighed in defeat, holding his hands up in surrender. “Okay, fine. Hold a grudge. Like that’s new for you.”

Maria wanted to be angry at that, but guilt was stabbing at her instead. Sean had wanted her to visit him during those two and a half years, but she’d never done it. She couldn’t bring herself to. Sean remembered the good years better than she did, and for some reason that made it harder to be around him than anyone else.

He had turned and was just about to push his way back into the diner, and probably right on out of Roswell, when she called to him, her voice almost a whisper.

“Sean.”

He stopped and turned to her, a guarded expression on his face.

She cleared her throat and was able to go a little louder. “You’re done, right?” She gave him a serious, almost pleading look.

“I’m on parole,” he started, but he knew that wasn’t what she was talking about, and he nodded. “Yeah, Maria, I’m done.” Done being a badass, done proving his parents right about him.

She nodded. “Good.”

He turned to leave, but paused again, turning only half towards her. “Listen, Ria, I talked to Aunt Amy already, but…” He wasn’t facing her, but she could see something dark passing over his face. “Look, Dad still thinks I’m the biggest mistake walking around New Mexico—”

“That man should talk,” Maria cut in, acidly.

“Anyhow, I don’t know how good things are going to be at home. I’m gonna give it a chance, but if it gets bad…” he shrugged. “Just don’t be surprised if I end up crashing on your couch sometime soon.”

Maria gave a curt nod, swallowing painfully. “Right.” She watched him go, something tightening in her chest as her eyes misted over again, despite herself. There were worse things than having a father walk out on you when you’re six years old. There was always the option of having a dad who stuck around, but thought you were worthless anyhow. She didn’t know why she was getting so upset on Sean’s behalf—that time of the month maybe?

Or maybe it was something deeper that she didn’t want to identify, a deep, buried yearning to protect her own kin, that had her burying her face in her hands, trying to stop her tears. Things were bad enough for Sean to be wanting out of the house after only a few days, and here she was pushing him away and treating him like dirt. What was wrong with her?

She was wiping the hot tears off her face and trying to slow her breathing when the door from the kitchen opened, and to her horror, an annoyed-looking Michael barreled into the small back room.

“Look, if you’re done chit-chatting with your boyfriend we’ve got an actual restaurant out here with custom—” he broke off suddenly, an uncomfortable look passing over his face as he got a good look at her and she attempted to get a handle on herself.

She tried her best to glare at him, but she wasn’t sure if it was working or not. And then, to her complete surprise, she saw a flash of something she never thought she’d see on Michael Guerin’s face—compassion. It was gone before she was sure it had been there, and Michael looked away from her. “Sorry,” he muttered, in a low voice, as he backed out of the room without another word.

Maria stood there, stunned out of her tears, with confusion locking her in place.

Was it possible that Parker had actually had it right all along? That there was something more to Michael than everybody assumed?

Maria went into the small bathroom to wash her face and fix up her makeup, and she tried not to roll her eyes at herself when she realized exactly how much she wanted the answer to those questions to be 'yes.'

AN: Happy New Year's, All! :D


Part 17

"So who was that?" Alex asked, nodding towards the leather jacket guy, as he was passed by their booth on his way out, winking at Isabel in the process.

Max glanced at Isabel briefly, and if Alex hadn't been afraid of looking in her direction, he would have seen her shake her head slightly at her brother before he answered. "Maria's loser cousin Sean."

"That was Sean DeLuca? I thought they locked him up. I mean, isn't he dangerous or something?" Alex asked, before he could stop himself.

"Do you seriously believe everything you hear?" Isabel asked, some venom in her voice. "Sean's not dangerous, and he's not a loser, Max," she said, switching her annoyance to her brother at the end.

Alex wasn't sure which was more upsetting, the fact that Isabel was on friendly terms with a convicted criminal, or the way Tess kept sneaking looks at Max like he was her last meal. He thought about kicking her under the table again, but decided against it.

Max, on the other hand, had his eyes carefully on Liz, or at least that's who Alex was pretty sure he was eyeing. Isabel, needless to say, was doing everything she could to avoid looking at him, and was currently examining her perfectly-manicured nails. Alex couldn't help feeling a little invisible and a lot uncomfortable at the table.

"So how about that quiz in pre-calc today, huh?" he said a little too loudly. Max looked Alex politely, though uninterestedly, and Tess shot him a look. Yeah, like he was the Whitman acting weird today. "I don't think tests should be allowed in classes until at least October," he followed up lamely, and Tess rolled her eyes a little, while he heard a distinctive scoff from the beauty next to him. He opened his mouth say something else inane, now that he was on a roll, when Isabel cut in.

"Can you let me out, please? I'm gonna go try to catch up with Sean."

Alex's jaw dropped slightly at the fact that she'd actually spoken directly to him, and he turned to stare at her for a moment before she gave him a pointed look, reminding him he was supposed to be getting out of the way.

"Oh, yeah, sure. Sorry." He scrambled out of the booth as quickly as he could and Isabel slid over, pressing past him as she got out.

"Thanks for today, Tess, it was fun," she said, turning a genuine smile to Alex's sister, who returned it readily.

"It was great, we should do it more often," Tess agreed.

Isabel nodded, then gave her brother a short, "Bye, Max." She glanced at Alex, but didn't say anything, and he watched as she sauntered out of the diner.

"So what was that about?" he asked, once she was gone, and immediately felt his cheeks flush a little. Eager much, Whitman?

"What was what about?"

"Isabel and Sean?" he said, thankfully sounding more casual than he was.

"They kind of used to be a thing," Max said, a little distractedly. "I don't really know the details."

"Used to be a thing. As in, they're not now." Alex cringed inwardly. Did he not know how to shut up?

Max gave him an odd look. "He has been locked up for a while," he reminded.

"Right. Well, um, I think I'm gonna head on home… nice seeing you, Max." Max nodded at him, in a friendly way, though there was still something sort of shy in Max's demeanor, not that Alex could blame him. He'd been watching his back his whole life after all. "You coming, Tessa? Or were you gonna stick around?" He glanced around the restaurant for Maria, who still hadn't quite emerged from the backroom. "I don't think you'll be getting that soda anytime soon."

"Hm?" Tess said, and he barely stopped himself from rolling his eyes when he saw that she was once again watching Max, who was now pouring over his English book. "I mean yeah," she said, blinking as if to clear her head. "Yeah, right." She threw a couple dollars on the table for her as-yet-undelivered soda, and gave Max a small wave as she said goodbye to him, glancing at him once or twice as the pair of them left the diner.

"So you want to explain that a little?" he asked, as they settled into the Rabbit and he started pulling out of his spot.

"What, you freaking out when Isabel ran after Sean?" she giggled.

He scowled at her lightly. "No, the part where you were fawning all over Max Evans."
Tess gave a snort. "What are you talking about? I was doing nothing of the sort."

Alex threw her a disbelieving glance as he took a turn down Reed. "Yeah, right. I was sitting right there, Tess, I saw you. You were practically drooling over him."

Tess stared at him like he was crazy. "Are you kidding me? I've got a boyfriend, remember?"

"Yeah, I know, that's why it was creeping me out."

Tess shook her head, scoffing a little. "What is it with everyone thinking I have a thing for Max Evans all of a sudden?"

"What do you mean everyone?" Alex asked, interest piqued. He'd only just noticed it today.

"First Isabel thought I wanted to talk to her about Max the other day when I walked up to her, and then—” Tess cut herself off, eyes widening slightly for just a moment, before she shrugged. "Never mind."

"No, and then what, Tess?"

He saw her bite her lip out of the corner of his eye. The way she did when she didn't want to say something. "It was just this weird dream I had."

Alex was thankful for the stop sign that halted their progress right then, because if he hadn't already been on his way to stop, he might have run off the side of the road. "What, you're having Max dreams now?" he demanded, staring at his sister. The same sister whose PDA's with Kyle had been squicking him out just days before. It wasn't like her to pull such a 180° on people.

"Look, I don't even remember the dream, alright? I just think Max might've been in it. Can we just forget about this?" she pleaded, turning away from him a little.

Not sure how to feel about that, Alex let his foot off the break, going about their drive home. "What about Kyle?" he asked. He wasn't sure if it was any of his business, but Kyle was his best friend.

"This has nothing to do with Kyle," Tess said, a little hotly.

"I don't know that he'd agree with you there," he started carefully. "I mean, if you've got a thing for Max—”

"I do not have a thing for Max," Tess cut in. "What do you want me to say, Alex? I do not have a thing for Max, I do not have a thing for Max, I do not have a thing for Max."

Alex glanced at her with a frown. She seemed a little annoyed over the whole thing, and just a little desperate for him to believe her. He knew Tess could get away with a whopper of a lie if she wanted to, but she'd never used it against him before, and it wouldn't make sense for her to start now.

"Okay," he said, as he finally pulled up the curb outside their house. "You do not have a thing for Max."

*************

Michael pulled a new batch of Saturn Rings out of the fryer, then spun to flip the burgers on the grill. As he started to turn back to the Rings, he caught sight of Maria heading back into the main part of the diner.

He watched her for a moment, and she looked okay. He didn’t know who that guy was, he didn’t know what she’d been blubbering over, and really it didn’t matter, but something about that stubborn, angry look she gave him wouldn’t leave his mind.

He’d always nailed Maria as the shallow type. She was always buzzing around Max Evans like this buzzy little hummingbird, and he’d figured the guy just put up with it ‘cause he didn’t have the nerve to tell her to shove off. He had to admit it was pretty impressive that she’d known about Max and Isabel all along. She didn’t really seem like the type to take aliens in stride.

At least, real aliens. He grimaced slightly as he thought of her mom’s Alien-a-Go-Go. The murals in the Crashdown were bad enough, but Amy DeLuca’s shop made his entire heritage look like a joke. What would she think if she knew her daughter was in cahoots with two real live ET’s?

He winced as the smell of smoke hit his nose, and he pulled the remaining burgers off the grill, setting them onto plates that were sitting waiting with open buns and a side of fries each. “Table four, order up,” he barked automatically, and before he could pick up his train of thought, Maria came over and took the new plates, deliberately avoiding his gaze.

She looked instead at Max, an almost longing, but indecisive look on her face. Like she wanted to go over and confide in him, but knew it would be no use.

Michael felt an inexplicable prickle of annoyance when Max didn’t even notice her watching him. He was staring glumly at his textbook and when his eyes did leave the pages, it was only to seek out Liz.

And even though it annoyed him, Michael couldn’t blame him, really. Liz was… Liz.

But there was something about that Maria girl.

He caught sight of Alex and Tess Whitman leaving together, and felt an acute stab of jealousy.

He wasn’t supposed to be jealous. Life was crappy, and that’s the way it was. He was used to that.

But the fact that three of the four aliens had been adopted into happy, loving families, kind of stung. And it really annoyed him that it stung. It went against everything he’d raised himself to be—self-relient, detached, a stone wall.

But really, what were the odds? That Max and Isabel were picked up by the Evans, and Tess was picked up by the Whitmans, and Michael was the only one who ended up not being taken in by whoever picked him up.

The truth was, he didn’t even know who picked him up. The earliest he could remember was going home with Hank. Yeah. That was a highlight.

Max and Isabel even had each other. And a small part of him wondered if maybe they’d been sent in pairs… what if Tess was his—he couldn’t even bring himself to complete the thought. It was too much.

But he couldn’t bring himself to expose himself to them, either. Especially now, when he was already on the verge of losing Liz.

But now that he knew about the others, he couldn’t stop himself from wanting to know more. Of course he’d always wanted to know about his origins, but learning about the others, made it feel more vital somehow, like a deep yearning that wouldn’t go away.

If he could just look at that stone again. To think. He’d hiked in the desert dozens of times looking for some clue to his origins, and there Tess Whitman had been holding onto a little piece of his home all along.

Their home, he corrected himself. He wasn’t the only one of his kind anymore. He didn’t know what to think about that.

Not that it changed anything. He’d been right before, that the others didn’t want him as part of their group. Even his own kind didn’t want him.

He ground his teeth at the empty feeling clawing in his chest.

Nothing had changed. He was just as alone as he’d ever been, maybe even more so.

But as he tried to shake the feeling away, Maria caught his eye again.

Maybe he wasn’t the only one.

*************

When Isabel caught up to Sean he was halfway down the street, just about to get into his car.

“Hey,” she called, her voice a little shaky. She hadn’t seen him since he’d been sentenced a year and a half before, and while her little girl crush on him had been gone for years, she still remembered what it had felt like.

He turned towards her, a harsh look on his face, but the moment he saw who it was, it was gone. “Hey yourself.”

She remembered the first time she’d seen Sean. She’d been warned in advance that he was no good. Her parents had handled some of his earlier misdemeanor cases when he was a kid, but he’d always struck Isabel as a little sad under all his seeming indifference.

They’d always been kind of the same, always judged based on who people thought they were, rather than who they really were. She knew it kind of hurt Maria that Isabel had spent so much time with Sean over the years, but she couldn’t stop herself. It was refreshing; being around someone who understood what it was like, with people thinking they know everything about you, just by the way you look, or what they’d heard. He’d always been the delinquent from outside of town. She’d always been the Ice Queen.

Nobody bothered to learn anything about who they really were. It was people like Alex Whitman, assuming they understood who they were, who made life so hard for them.

She brushed off the tiny thought that maybe Alex had been a little right about her. She didn’t want it.

“I’m glad you’re home,” she said, almost wanting to hug him, but not sure how awkward it would be.

Sean gave a little snort. “I’m glad I’m in Roswell.” Technically he was from Hondo.

“Your parents?” she asked, letting the question hang in the air.

“I don’t wanna talk about my parents.”

Isabel nodded. It was understandable. She was one of the few who knew about the complications in Maria’s family circle, and they were pretty ugly.

“Hey, you wanna go somewhere? Maybe catch up at Señor Chow’s? You can get that burrito you like and put your nasty Tobasco all over it.”

She smiled. Sean was the only human she’d ever wanted to admit the truth about her origins to, though she never had, and even though she had a sneaking suspicion that he kind of saw her as a kid sister, thanks to her relation with Maria, the idea of spending some time with him sounded better than anything.

“I’d like that.”

Part 18

“He asked her if she believed in aliens?” Kyle said, looking at Max, surprised. “That’s the first thing he said?” Max and Maria had met by their table at lunch to fill them in on things.

“Uh, yeah. That’s what Liz said.”

“Why didn’t she just hang up the phone? That same crank call’s been going all over.”

Max raised an eyebrow. “It has?”

Alex nodded. “Kyle and I both got that call. Figured it was just a joke and hung up.”

“Yeah, Max… I got that call too,” Maria chimed in, giving him an odd look. “I would’ve told you that earlier if you’d given me the details.”

There was a weird note in her voice that made Kyle raise an eyebrow, but he didn’t think too much about it. If Deluca was gonna give Max back his best friends bracelet it didn’t have much to do with him.

“Well that’s great, actually,” Max said. “If this really is just a guy calling through the class roster then we probably don’t have anything to worry about. Do you think you guys can maybe ask around?”

Kyle shared a why-not shrug with Alex, and figured that was that, when Tess jumped in emphatically.

“We’ll do anything to help, Max. Anything we can.”

Something in her voice made Kyle sit up a little straighter. He looked over at her, and she was smiling at Max, a weird gleam in her eyes. Kyle glanced at Max, who looked a little surprised but also like he wasn’t reading much into it. “Uh, thanks, Tess. That’d be great.”

She smiled at him in a way that made Kyle feel a little queasy. “If there’s anything else we can do, Max,” she said, putting her hand over his where it was laying on the bright blue fiber-glass lunch table where he leaned.

Max jumped back to a standing position as if he’d been shocked by something, pulling his hand away as he went, looking a little uncomfortable now. He cast a confused glance at Kyle, who was doing all he could not to glare back at the guy. Clearly whatever the hell was going on was not due to Max’s incentive.

“I’ll… see you guys around.”

Kyle looked over at Alex, who was staring at Tess like he’d never seen her before, and gave him an I-don’t-get-it-either shrug, as she watched after Max’s retreating form.

Kyle looked away, his confusion starting to give way as hurt and anger started billowing up in him. When the hell had this started? And if Tess was going to start falling for another guy why didn’t she at least have the decency to tell him? He was just about to ask to talk to her for a second when her voice broke into his thoughts, chipper as ever as she addressed Alex.

“You know, I thought there was something weird about you guys both getting that call. Poor Liz, I bet she’s a little freaked out.”

She laid her hand on his leg, completely naturally, and this time it was Kyle jumping away from her touch, as he slid a good four inches away from her.

She pulled her hand back as if she’d been stung, and when he looked at her her eyes were full of confusion. “Kyle?”

“Tess what the hell is going on with you?” he said, his voice heated but quiet. Just because he was pissed didn’t mean he wanted to draw attention to her if he could help it.

“What do you mean?” she asked, perplexed. “What’s going on with you?”

“Excuse me if I don’t like seeing my girlfriend falling all over some other guy right in front of me,” he said, bitterly.

Tess’ eyes widened then, and she looked at Alex almost desperately. “What is he talking about, Alex?”

Alex was holding himself stiffly, obviously uncomfortable, and he gave a sigh. “You did it again, Tess. The Max thing.”

“What do you mean again?” Kyle demanded, as that little bit of information seemed to stab into him.

Tess looked back and forth between them in horror, and then she turned on Alex in a fury. “Alex Charles Whitman if this is a joke you two set up against me, then—”

“I don’t look like I’m laughing, do I?” Kyle broke her off, and when Tess looked back at him she looked like she was about to cry. “How long has this been going on?”

“How long has what? I was just trying to be nice to Max.”

He snorted. “Not like that you weren’t. Forget it. I’m heading to the weight room.”

He got up to leave, but Tess was right on his tail, stopping him. “Kyle wait. Look, whatever you thought just happened back there didn’t, okay? I don’t even know what’s going on right now—”

“Then why don’t you go figure it out with your other boyfriend? I‘ve got more important things to do,” he threw over his shoulder at her.

She gave a huff of frustration, maybe accented by a sob, he wasn’t sure, but he wasn’t about to turn around to find out, and she’d stopped following him.

He already felt a knife of guilt over the things he’d said, and he was probably overreacting, but dammit. Yesterday things were fine between them. Hell, yesterday they were in the running for most-likely-to-get-married. Then all of a sudden she finds out a guy she’s never looked twice at before is an alien and she’s gushing at him like a schoolgirl.

Not to mention the guy was from her freaking planet.

How do you compete with that?

*************

September 24th, journal entry #1

I’m Liz Parker and five days ago I died. Okay, so maybe that’s over-dramatizing things a bit. I mean, I didn’t actually die. My heart didn’t stop beating, there was no white light. But I was bleeding to death, and there was a bullet lodged in my stomach three inches below my ribs. There was no white light, but there was darkness. And I know that if Max Evans hadn’t been there to take that darkness away, that light would’ve been the next thing I would have seen.

Since that day, since that moment that Max healed me, brought me back to life from wherever I was going… my life has changed more than I ever thought possible. And that wasn’t because I, Liz Parker, had to face the fact that there were aliens on Earth. I already knew that, after all. And really, now that I think about it, finding out that Michael, my best friend, was an alien, was not life-changing for me. It shifted my paradigm, changed how I looked at the world and the universe, but not my life. Because even though I’ve learned to judge the things around me according to science, there is nothing in science that says that it is impossible for aliens to exist. Maybe one time thoughts like that were the norm, but not now, not for a long time. All I knew was that aliens didn’t exist in our solar system. But there’s plenty of space out there.

Getting back to my point, though. Finding out Michael was an alien was huge; it brought us closer as friends and has really bonded us, but Max Evans… Max saved my life. And in doing so, he’s given me a new lease on life.

And already things are spinning out of control. I don’t know where this next chapter of my life is taking me, and for all I know it could be dangerous. Even though a part of me is scared, though, I’m excited to see where it will take me.

I’m afraid that Michael is jealous of Max, of the friendship growing there. I wish that he could understand that Max will never change how I see him. I honestly don’t think that I could survive without Michael. I have no idea where I’d be without him. He’s been my best friend, the only person other than my parents who I could rely on completely, and has been as long as I’ve known him. He knows me better than anybody else could, and he’s always supported me. It’s always been the two of us. Michael and Lizzie against the world. But now… things have changed.

I’ve changed.

Max Evans has put a force on me. When he showed himself, his soul to me that day at school, he changed everything that I am. Suddenly, when I look into his eyes, I’m not who I used to be—little Lizzie Parker, waitress, best friend, Daddy’s girl. When I look into his eyes, I see myself as he sees me. And the amazing thing is, in his eyes… I’m beautiful.

“Liz?”

Liz blinked at her handwriting on the page, wondering if she’d just imagined that voice, but as she stared at what she’d written, the stage-whisper came again, calling her name.

Pulling herself up from the lawn chair where she sat on the balcony outside her room, Liz walked over to the brick-wall edge and peered over. There, in the alley next to the Crashdown, was Max Evans.

Her face was a mix of surprise and curiosity as she looked at him, and he smiled, nodding towards the iron ladder that served as a fire-escape. “Can I come up?”

Liz’s heart gave a nervous flip-flop, but she nodded, and waved him up. As he started up the ladder Liz turned to shove her journal—a gift from her grandmother—underneath a pillow, and by the time she turned around, Max was standing before her. He wasn’t even winded.

She sat down on the lawn chair, then stood up again, quickly, pulling and straightening her shirt. “Max, what are you—what’re you doing here?”

He looked a little uncertain of himself, running his hand along the brick surrounding wall of her patio absently. “I just wanted…” He stopped for a moment and the breath caught in her throat, and her heart was pounding in her ears as she thought of a hundred ways he could end that sentence. “I just wanted to tell you that we’ve been asking around, and from what we can tell it looks like only you, Alex, Kyle and Maria got that phone call.”

Liz felt her happy-nervous feelings dissolve, only to be replaced by nervous-nervous feelings, and a good dose of shame. “And I’m the only one who told him anything,” she said, angry at herself. Her cheeks were burning against the cool night air.

Without thinking she was suddenly directly in front of Max, her hand on his sleeve in an almost-pleading gesture. “Max, I am so, so sorry. I just—if anything happened to you after what you did to me—” her voice broke and she had to stop. She was feeling angry and stupid and embarrassed all at once.

“Hey, hey,” Max said, his voice soothing. He put a hand up to cover hers where it was, and touched her arm with his own, almost mirroring her position. The minute he did Liz sucked in a breath. It was like a circuit of energy was flowing through her from both sides. “None of this is your fault, Liz. For all we know, this will all blow over anyhow.”

Liz blinked away the tears that threatened, but she still felt guilt like a lead weight in her belly. “I know, Max, I just can’t believe I was so stupid. I mean after all this time—” Liz stopped herself, shutting her mouth so quickly that she bit her tongue and she could taste the blood in her mouth. What was wrong with her? She’d very nearly admitted to keeping Michael’s secret, which of course, would have blown it.

He was looking at her, concerned. “After all this time what?”

She turned away, pulling out of his touch and feeling the smallest bit colder when she did. “I just mean that you and Maria and Isabel have managed to keep this secret for so long,” she said, leaning on the brick wall and practically making it up as she went along. That’s why she’d turned away from him. She had a feeling if he’d seen her eyes he would have known she was lying. “Then here I go and I spoil it in less than a week.”

She heard him sigh. “Liz, I really didn’t come here to make you worry. I just thought you should know. I don’t want you blaming yourself over anything. I knew exactly what I was risking when I saved you. I wouldn’t take it back, Liz. No matter what happens.”

Liz felt herself start to smile. Somehow whenever he was around she felt like things were going to be okay? “So we’ll just wait and see what does happen.”

He had his hands in his pockets and raised his shoulders, slightly. “Yeah. Um, I should…” he glanced up at the sky, as if he could tell the time from the stars. “I guess I should go.”

Liz nodded from where she stood, fingering the iron railing of the ladder.

“Goodnight, Liz,” he said, softly, as he passed her, his eyes shining warm assurance at her.

“Goodnight, Max.” He touched her hand slightly as he hoisted himself over the wall and started down the ladder, and just as he was about to start down, she stopped him. “Max?”

He stalled, a little below her and looked up at her, and she felt like she could have fallen straight into those light brown eyes of his. “I just… thank you, for coming here. Thank you for trusting me, despite everything.”

One corner of his mouth lifted up in a smile. “I’ll always trust you, Liz,” he said, and with that he was down the ladder and heading up the alley, stopping at the street to turn back and give her half a wave.

She smiled back at him, but as she stepped back she sighed, thinking of Michael. She wasn’t entirely sure Max was right about what he’d said.

Liz flopped down on the lawn chair she kept on the roof, thinking at least there wasn’t anything she could do about any of it at the moment, but as soon as she started to comfort herself with that thought, something else jerked her back to a sitting position, and had her brow creasing in a frown.

She still had to tell Michael about the phone call.

*************

Michael was done cleaning the grill and he threw his cleaning rag onto the counter along with his apron. He punched out his timecard in the back room and was shoving his way into the main area of the diner—when he crashed headlong into Maria Deluca, knocking a half-empty sugar container out of her hands, which shattered when it hit the floor, breaking into a few pieces and spilling its contents.

“Dammit!” Maria shrieked, while Michael uttered a stronger epithet under his breath. “Thank you. Thank you so much. This is the last bloody thing I had to do tonight and now I’ll have to get the broom out and—”

“Woah,” Michael said holding a hand out to get her to stop talking. She was already crouching down to clean things up and glared at him as she spoke. “My bad,” he said, “I didn’t know anybody was here.”

Maria snorted. “That’s convenient. Look, I’m really tired right now, so if you could please just—”

“Hey,” Michael said, crouching down himself, a bit of an edge to his voice as annoyance battled something in between curiosity and something else he couldn’t quite define. “Look, I said my bad. I’ll take care of it.”

Her half-hurried movements stopped altogether and she looked up at him, the same flash of confusion in her eyes that he’d seen the day before, when he’d apologized for walking in on her crying. Dammit, why’d he have to go think of that? “Just, go ahead, go,” he said, his voice sounding gruff even to his own ears.

He kept his eyes on the pile of sugar on the ground and the pieces of broken glass he was picking up. Luckily he could put the pieces back together before Mr. Parker would ever notice.

He paused when he realized the blonde hadn’t moved, and was still staring at him. “What?” he snapped, finally looking at her.

She didn’t say anything for a long moment, and something in her clear blue eyes made him want to run faster and farther away than he’d ever had wanted in his life, but he couldn’t seem to move. He couldn’t even look away.

It was a damn scary feeling.

When she finally did speak, what she said confused him.

“You’re hurt.”

Michael reared back a little. “What?”

“Your hand. You cut it.”

He looked to where she gestured, and sure enough one of the shards of glass had left a slice along his left palm. As if seeing it also meant feeling it, he hissed at a sudden stinging sensation, and shook the hand out as if it would come off.

“Here, let me see,” she said, stopping his hand in mid-motion and bringing it close to her face so she could see it in the dim light. He could feel her breath on his hand, and the sensation was something he wasn’t expecting, and he pulled his hand away.

“Sorry,” she muttered, sounding annoyed. “Look, it’s not deep, but you should probably clean it. You don’t want it getting infected or anything.”

Then it was Michael’s turn to be surprised. What did she care if his whole arm fell off?

“Yeah, okay,” he said, not even noticing what he was saying. He got and took the pieces of glass behind the counter, to where the trash can was, then when he was out of Maria’s line of vision he reassembled the pieces and put it under the counter, grabbing the dustpan from it’s place there.

“Is there a first-aid kit here?”

He turned back to her. “A what?”

“A first-aid kit. For your hand.”

Michael’s mouth parted, and he fully expected himself to tell her to forget about it and go home. “In the bathroom in back.”

While she went to retrieve the kit, he cleaned the small pile of sugar up with a wave of his hand. It was about the only productive thing he could do with his powers, cleaning up spills. Came from years of practice in the diner.

When she came back with the kit, he half expected her to toss it to him and leave. He was surprised again, though, as she headed towards one of the booths. “Come here.”

His mouth opened in surprise. “I can—I mean, you don’t have to—”

“Just shut up and come here.”

Michael’s eyes narrowed at the order, but he complied, and laid his hand on the table when she asked him to.

He watched as she pulled out cotton balls and a bottle of hydrogen peroxide.

“What are you doing here so late, anyhow?” he asked, partially because being here with her was making him nervous, partly because he just might have been curious.

Maria sighed, rolling her eyes a bit. “Just not sure what I’ll find when I get home, I guess.”

He considered what he knew of her mom and snorted. “Like what, an alien marmalade pie?”

She was tipping the bottle onto a cotton ball, and she paused to fix him with a death stare, but seemed like she wasn’t in the mood to snark at him too harshly. “I don’t make assumptions about your homelife, okay? Gimme your hand.”

Michael’s jaw dropped slightly, but he assented in silence, and he held his breath as she held his hand steady in one of her smaller ones, and started dabbing at his cut with the other. His hand jerked slightly when it came in contact with the stinging, and she rubbed it with her thumb, soothingly, in what he was sure was a totally unconscious movement.

Which is maybe why it affected him so much.

“You do this often?” he asked suddenly, and she jumped a little, looking at him confused. “Patch people up?” he clarified, gesturing towards his hand. He wasn’t sure why he sounded so sarcastic, until he saw the defensive look in her eyes. Why the hell was he trying to pick a fight?

To distract himself from the feel of her hands. Or get her to take them away. Which she did, pulling away from him and leaning as far back as the booth would allow her then. The loathing look he was used to receiving from her was suddenly back then. “Fine. I try to do one nice thing, and—you know what? Forget it. Just forget it.”

She got out of the booth and flounced into the back area, probably to change, leaving him there, the first aid kit open before him. Moving dumbly, he closed it up, and waited for a moment for her to come back into the main area, not sure yet if he was going to apologize for whatever it was he’d just done. Not sure if it was even his fault.

After a few minutes, though, he heard her leaving through the alley exit, and he blew out a breath of relief. He felt like he’d narrowly avoided falling into some kind of a trap. What kind, though, he wasn’t sure, and part of him definitely didn’t want to know.

Part 19

“Alex, you have to talk to him for me. You have to. You have to explain things to him somehow.”

“Tess—” Alex started, in a tired voice, but she shook her head, cutting him off.

“No, he’s not taking any of my phone calls, and I know you don’t want to get involved and it’s none of your business or whatever but I just really need you to—”

“Tess,” he said, more insistent this time, but she turned to him, fiercely.

“Don’t you dare refuse to do this for me, Alex Charles Whitman, or so help me, I’ll—”

“Tess!”

Shouting her name at the top of his lungs finally got her to stop stalk still in her frantic pacing across her bedroom floor, where Alex had knocked on the door a few minutes before. He’d been regaled by her words ever since.

“What?” she snapped at him, as soon as the startled look fell away from her face.

He gave a half-mock impatient huff, and then sent her an amused, but encouraging smile. He jerked a thumb behind him. “Kyle’s downstairs, he wants to talk to you.”

Tess opened her mouth to yell at him once again when she finally processed what he’d said, and then she snapped it shut.

“What did you just say?”

Alex barely smothered a chuckle. “Uh, Kyle is downstairs?” he repeated, trying to keep a straight face. “He wants to talk to you?”

Most nights a childishly-giggling Alex would be just cause for a verbal lashing and possibly even a small bout of angry mind warping, but tonight she simply stared at him, opening and closing her mouth a few times before she managed to speak. “But what do I say to him? What do I—I mean what can I even—”

“Why don’t you tell him what you told me earlier?” Alex prodded, most of the humor gone from his expression now. “Explain to him that there’s something going on here that you don’t understand.”

“But I don’t even know what it is. I mean all of a sudden I can’t control my actions around Max, and I don’t even know that I’m doing it until someone else tells me what a moron I’m making of myself? Like he’s really going to listen to that.”

Alex shrugged. “He’s put up with a lot of weird stuff in his time. Besides, you’ll never know until you try,” he said, gesturing towards the stairs as if inviting her to go down. “Good luck,” he said, as she huffed a breath and went past him.

Tess tugged on the bottom of her shirt, making sure it was straight. This was so ridiculous. She hadn’t been shy in front of Kyle Valenti since she was eight years old and she’d started to notice the fact that he was a boy, and even that hadn’t lasted long. Come on, he was Kyle. She’d known him virtually as long as she’d known Alex, thanks to the three weeks he’d spent at their house when they were six, only a few months after Tess had been adopted. She’d cried the day the sheriff had taken him home—she’d thought at first that he was another brother.

But Alex had explained to her why it was good that he was going home, and it hadn’t separated them too much—Alex and Kyle had become virtually inseperable over those three weeks.

And those brotherly feelings she’d had towards Kyle? Well they’d disappeared a long time ago.

She’d been walking slowly, and as she finally rounded the corner to stand at the top of the stairs, she could see him sitting on her mother’s white leather sofa, her pride and joy. He was sitting on the edge, his broad shoulders hunched up in his favorite brown jacket and one knee bouncing quickly up and down in front of him as he stared at his feet.

Apparently she wasn’t the only one who was a little nervous about this talk.

As she watched his strong, familiar frame wound tight with apprehension, tears pricked at her eyes for a moment. She could not mess this up. She had a very bad feeling that if this conversation went badly, she could lose Kyle, maybe forever, and that just wasn’t an option.

As she blinked the moisture in her eyes away, he looked up at where she stood, about halfway down the stairs, and his leg-tapping came to a stop.

“Hey,” she said, glad that it was a short word and that it wouldn’t let her voice waver much.

“Hey,” he said back, a little brusquely, but not in a cold way, just in a Kyle-nervous way.

She continued her descent down the stairs and came to perch on her dad’s big, overstuffed chair. She placed her hands on her legs, almost holding onto her knees. “So,” she said, barely able to look at him, though her eyes kept flitting to and away from his face.

Kyle took a deep breath and blew it out. “So,” he repeated. “Look, Tess, I know I probably overreacted a bit earlier today,”

“I’ll say,” she said, a little huffily, but she snapped her mouth shut, looking repentant when Kyle looked at her sharply, his eyes narrowed.

“Anyhow,” he started again. “What I was going to say is that I’m sorry for snapping at you like that, I just…” He shook his head, a completely baffled look on his face. “Just tell me what exactly that was today.”

Tess bit her lip, her grip on her knees tightening. “See, Kyle, that’s the problem. I have no idea what happened at lunch today.” Kyle’s eyes shifted mutinously, and Tess rushed on to explain herself. “No, I’m serious.” She put her hand over his as they were seated near enough to each other to allow her to do so, and she didn’t think until the action was done that he might jump away from her touch like he had earlier, but thankfully, he didn’t. “Kyle, I don’t know what’s going on with me. These last couple of days, every time I’m around Max, it’s like, I feel like everything is normal, like I’m acting normally around him, and then as soon as he’s gone people start telling me how I really did act.”

Kyle snorted, not looking convinced. “So that’s your excuse? You just can’t control yourself around him?”

Tess flinched. That was exactly what she was saying, but when he put it like that… “I mean that I feel like I’m controlling myself, but then I find out I’m not,” she said, the explanation barely making sense, even to herself.

He eyed her, but shook his head, shortly. “You gotta give me something better than that, Tessa.”

Tess flopped back in the chair in frustration. “I don’t know what to tell you, Kyle,” she said, taking small consolation in the fact that he’d called her by her pet name. “All I can say is that I was not flirting with Max at lunch today. According to Alex it really looked like I was flirting with him, but I swear, I wasn’t.” She watched him for a reaction, but he didn’t even move. He was obviously listening to her intently, but his face still looked more than skeptical.

In desperation, she moved to sit next to him on the couch, pulling both of his hands into hers. “Kyle, have I ever given you any indication that I wanted to be with anybody other than you?”

He shifted a little in his seat, but didn’t pull his hands away from her. “No,” he said, finally. “It’s just… he’s like you,” Kyle mumbled.

Tess pulled back, surprised. “You really think that just because Max may be from my planet I’m just going to forget everything and fall head-over-heels for the guy? Kyle, you’re the one who accepted me before I even knew that there was a reason why you shouldn’t. You’ve always known I was adopted, you even knew me when I could barely speak and you didn’t mind it. I mean, most people would freak out a little bit if they found out their best friend’s sister had mind-control powers, you know? But you, you just went along with it.” She touched his face, willing him to look at her. “Kyle, it’s always been you for me.”

Kyle started to smile, and finally looked like he was really starting to believe her, but then he stiffened up again. “Do you think Evans is… doing this to you?” Kyle asked suddenly, sitting up a little straighter in his seat.

A frown creased her forehead. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, do you think he’s using some kind of alien mind voodoo on you?”

The frown got deeper. “I didn’t even think of that,” she admitted. “But why would he? Do you really think he’d try to use his powers to turn me into some kind of weird, lovesick dog? Are you forgetting this is Max ‘I-heart-Liz-Parker” Evans?”

“Oh, yeah, that.” Kyle’s shoulders sagged, as if he’d almost been hoping Max had been manipulating her. Probably because then it would be his fault, not Tess’. And then a definite frown formed on Kyle’s face. “This probably is something alien, though. What if—What if you’re only… compatible with somebody of your own…” Kyle clamped his mouth shut, and Tess closed her eyes. It was so weird to have to talk about stuff like this. “I mean, biologically,” he finished, in a croaking voice.

She forced herself to smile at him, though she couldn’t deny the fact that the thought had occurred to her before. “Kyle, I know we’ve never gone that far, but… I think we should both know by now that we’re… ‘compatible,’” she said, using her fingers for air-quotes.

Kyle rolled his eyes, but a smile was starting to tug at the corner of his mouth, and Tess giggled softly, pulling one of his hands up to her mouth and kissing it lightly. “Look, if you want, I’ll try to stay away from Max. As much as I can. Until we can figure out what this thing is, okay?”

Kyle sighed, his hand gripping hers now, as if he was holding on to something he didn’t want to lose. “I don’t know that I can ask you to do that, Tess. I mean, you just found Max and Isabel. You guys are all in this thing together now. I can’t just take you away from that. But at the same time if I see you like that in front of him again, I don’t know what I’ll do, Tess.”

Tess frowned, knowing he was right. This wasn’t going to be easy, any way they played it. “We’ll find a way,” she promised, leaning in to give him a soft, sultry kiss.

In the middle of the kiss, though, she got a distinct flash of Max Evans, sending a shiver down her spine.

She was starting to wonder how much of a choice she really had in the matter.

*************

“Why the hell would you tell some random stranger all of that?” Michael demanded. He’d been understandably edgy ever since she’d started telling him about the phone call.

Liz sighed. Lately it felt like she was living her life in repeats. Every new piece of information that came up, she had to go through the same conversation twice, once with Max and the others, and once with Michael. Sitting on the edge of the lawn chair on her balcony, she watched Michael pacing in front of her as he processed the news about the mysterious phone call.

“I didn’t tell him anything, Michael,” she reminded him. “Not really. I just gave him opinions on things… I’m sorry, it just didn’t seem like there was any harm in it until he actually said my name at the end. We don’t even know whether we even have to worry about it or not—”

“You don’t know? Lizzie, a random freak knows your name and calls your house to ask you about aliens? You don’t think that’s something to worry about?”

“Well if anything, if he even did come after somebody, he’d come after Max and the others. Don’t act like you’re the one in danger here, Michael.”

“Aren’t I? Anybody could do a little bit of digging and find out that all four of us were found and adopted in the same place the same summer.”

“Except no one ever has. I just—I wish you would open your eyes a little. I don’t think any of them can do what you do, Michael, and that must mean something. You must have all been sent together for a reason.”

“So then what was the ‘reason’ for us to all get split up? If we were so meant to have been together all this time, why weren’t we all together, Liz?”

She stood up, her hands raised, palms out. “I don’t know, okay? But it’s something you should figure out, together. The sooner the better, Michael.”

Something in her tired, nearly-impatient tone made him turn towards her, sharply. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Liz tucked her hair behind her ears. “I’m not saying I’ll give you up to them. You know I would never do that, I just… Do you know what this is like for me? To have to look them in the face, and lie to them? And act like all of this is totally new to me, when it’s not? To have to stop myself from being able to say things because I’m not supposed to really understand what they’re talking about?”

Michael had a frown on his face, the frown he wore when he was thinking something over, but kept coming to the same conclusion, no matter what. It was a familiar look to Liz, and it did not bode well for their conversation, so far as her argument went.

“Liz, I know what I’m putting you through,” he said, finally. “And I know if you were anybody else, you would’ve given up on me by now.”

That made Liz sigh, heavily, as she leaned against the brick guarding wall, next to where he stood. “Michael, please don’t say things like that.” He didn’t look at her, and this was something she’d tried telling him over and over again, but she couldn’t stop herself. “Look, I know that saying your experiences with most people haven’t been the best is an understatement, but I swear, the world is not full of Hank Whitmores and stupid teachers that don’t understand the fact that you’re smarter than they are. You just… you just have to have a little faith in people.”

Michael didn’t answer her for a moment, and when he turned to her, there was a seriousness in his eyes that made their usual intensity go up a notch. “I have faith in what I know,” he said, clearly, “and what I know is you. It’s always been you, Liz.”

Liz swallowed, thickly, shifting a little under his gaze. She wasn’t sure exactly when the air had shifted, but it definitely had, and suddenly she was in uncharted territory.

She thought she’d known everything there was to know about Michael Guerin. She’d thought that after the week she’d just had, nothing could surprise her. But she was wrong.

“I’m sorry I found out about Tess and her rock,” he said, suddenly, and Liz jumped, looking at him, confused.

“What?” she asked, not sure what he was talking about.

“Tess and her freaky alien rock? You were going to hold it over my head so I’d have to talk to them, weren’t you?”

She shook her head, “No, Michael, it wasn’t like—”

“Liz, I know you better than that. That’s what I’m trying to say. I know you.”

Liz shook her head, trying to get a handle on the situation. What was it she’d been trying to tell him? “Mi-Michael you can’t just expect me to live my life like this,” she started, fumbling over her words. “Max and the others—”

“Screw Max and the others. This is about you and me, Liz.”

Liz swallowed dryly, and suddenly she could hear the blood rushing through her ears. “You and me?”

She blinked against the rush of blood to her head, and stumbled a little, trying to get a grasp on the situation. Before she fell Michael reached an able hand out to steady her, and she was struck with another little wave of dizziness.

“Liz look at me,” he said, his voice different than she’d ever heard it.

She tried to look away, to step away from him, but she was almost to the point of passing out. This couldn’t be happening to her. He couldn’t be saying what she thought he was saying.

He held her steady, and then, to her agony, he leaned forward so that their foreheads touched. “I love you, Liz. You’re the only person I’ve ever belonged with, and you belong with me, too.”

In a moment everything snapped back into clarity, and the sudden transition was too much for Liz. This whole thing was too much. Her throat burned as she forced herself away from Michael, just a little. When she started speaking her voice was small, and shattered, and she was blinking away tears. “Michael… you are like my best friend in the world. And you know that I would never, ever want to hurt you. I mean, I would die first, Michael…” She trailed off, helpless. She couldn’t even think of a single word more to say.

Michael’s hands dropped from her sides, and she watched as he swallowed harshly, as her tears started to fall down her face and panic clawed at her from inside. Why this? Why now?

“Michael,” she started, but he held a hand up, his eyes somewhere on the ground beside her, and without looking at her he turned and walked away.

*************

The next few weeks everything seemed to move in slow motion for Liz. The transition was strange, and it was starting to feel like that week in September was just a weird, intense dream. After that conversation with Michael, the crazy, life-changing carousel-ride her life seemed to have become slowed back to its normal pace. No more aliens were coming out of the woodworks, no one else had exposed their feelings to her in an unexpected way, and thankfully nothing had come of the creepy telephone calls.

The Crashdown was busier than usual, what with there being an orthodontist convention in Roswell for the weekend, and that was fine with Liz. She would have thought the change of pace would be good for her, give her a chance to catch her breath, but she’d been doing all kinds of breathing, and the fact that nothing was happening was starting to drive her crazy.

Michael hadn’t mentioned anything about his feelings again, and she hadn’t wanted to intrude on his privacy by bringing them up. When she ran into him afterwards he acted like the conversation had never happened, and was the same as ever, but there was the slightest of strains in the air, and while her heart ached over the fact that she’d had to turn him away, what could she have done? She did love Michael, just not in the romantic way that he’d been hoping for, and honestly she knew that he didn’t really love her that way, either. Michael was wholly devoted to her, that much she knew, and she could return that affection readily, but saying that he loved her, that he was in love with her… She had a sneaking suspicion that that was part of his almost-subconscious decision to never let anyone else in, ever again. After all, if he loved her, and she loved him? He'd never have to.

It just seemed universally unfair that he’d been landed with more trust issues than the other three aliens combined. Sure, Max, Isabel, and Tess were careful with who they shared their secret with, and who they befriended at all, but none of them seemed to spend every moment of their lives looking over their shoulder and questioning the motives of everyone around them. The only other people she knew of that Michael may have had even a modicum of trust in were her parents, and that’s only because they’d always had a don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy when it came to him crashing on the couch in the back room when he couldn’t handle Hank.

Liz shuddered involuntarily, as she often did when she thought of Michael’s foster father. She was fairly sure she’d never hate anyone as much as she hated that man. If there was one person to blame for how skeptical of people Michael had turned out, it was him.

In true form, Michael had not yet revealed himself to Max and the others. Liz had a pretty good idea now that it had less to do with his not being sure if he could trust them and more to do with just not wanting to have anything to do with Max Evans. Not like that was easy in a small town like Roswell. Despite a mostly consensual agreement to not be seen together too much until they were sure the phone-call thing had blown over—a suggestion Max had made in Biology a while back—Max had still been coming into the Crashdown almost daily, and they’d run into each other at least a dozen times outside of the diner. She was sure Max and Michael had purposely avoided each other in the halls at school at least as many times.

As good as she’d been trying to be about staying away from Max, it was kind of driving her crazy. She didn’t know when she had become this person who spent all day daydreaming about a guy… but then Max Evans wasn’t a normal guy.

And it wasn’t just the extraterrestrial thing. The small interactions they had allowed themselves were just proving everything she’d been discovering about Max to be true. He was opening himself up a bit, at least around her, smiling more readily when he saw her, and letting himself relax a little bit, and slowly but surely, the real Max Evans was starting to make himself known. And as mysterious and… kind of sexy as she’d thought him to be when he’d been little more than the strong, silent-type classmate, the real Max Evans was something infinitely more special.

The truth was, he was simply a wonderful, caring human being. Well. With some debate as to that last part.

But he was funny, and smart, and even though they hadn’t had much chance to interact over the last few weeks, every time she saw him and he gave her that slow smile of his, her day seemed that much brighter, and her life that much better.

Which made the fact that she hadn’t been able to be around him much that much more frustrating. She saw it as penance for the mistake she’d made, saying so much to a complete stranger over the telephone, but now that nothing had come of it and things were probably safe? She was having trouble finding an excuse to be near Max again.

Not that she was trying to be that near him. Well, not that she wasn’t. The point was—it was kind of an awkward situation.

That seemed to be a general consensus, she realized, as she thought of the people who had been “brought together” over the shooting. Strangely enough, it seemed like if they were there, every time Max walked into the Crashdown, lately, Kyle and Tess would leave. She hadn’t seen either Kyle or Alex interact much if at all with Max or Isabel, and while Tess and Isabel did seem to be spending more time together, it was definitely away from everyone else.

It wasn’t all weird, though. Working with Maria had let her get to know the other girl a little better, which had been nice. It was pretty obvious that Maria had come in to working at the Crashdown not trusting her, and almost as clear that she’d thought Liz was some kind of naïve, girl-in-a-plastic-bubble. The longer she worked at the Crashdown, though, and the more she and Michael seemed to snark back and forth at each other, Maria seemed to form some respect for Liz, if only for having “put up with” Michael for so long. She’d also seemed pleasantly surprised by the fact that Liz did in fact have a sense of humor, which definitely went a long way to amusing Liz, herself.

She was also finding Alex Whitman to be as dorky-charming and funny as she remembered him being from grade school, in the moments that she’d had to get to reacquainted with him. As weird as things were, Liz had to admit that they were also kind of nice. She’d never had much time to devoting to friends outside of Michael, and now all of a sudden she was a part of something, something real. All of a sudden she had this tie to six—seven, if and when Michael made his presence known—people, all who shared a secret, and who understood how important it was for that secret to be kept.

But somehow, it was more than that. It was trust. It was a shared smile of understanding, when they passed each other in the halls. And even though they weren’t exactly a unified entity just yet, Liz felt like, in a small way, it could be the beginnings of a family.

It was because of that new bond, that in spite of everything acting to the contrary, Liz Parker was finally starting to feel safe again.

*************

“Mr. Trilling.”

Larry had been sitting outside the Nacho Hut outside of town, reading for the millionth time the cover-up story the Roswell Daily had printed on the Crashdown shooting when someone called him by name.

He’d been on edge for weeks now, awaiting further instruction that hadn’t come while forcing himself to stay away from Liz Parker, but when he looked up, the man he saw was nothing like who he’d been expecting.

The man standing before him was a skinny, older man who’d spoken with a thick Texas accent. He was wearing a cream-colored jacketed suit with matching cowboy hat, a brown vest, and boots, like he’d just walked off the set of some foofy gun-slinging movie.

“Who’s asking?” Larry said, watching the stranger suspiciously.

The older man took off his hat and mopped at his brow with a handkerchief he’d pulled from his pocket. “I don’t recall asking you anything, boy. The name’s Hubble. Everett Hubble. You were supposed to be expecting me.”

Larry couldn’t help but guffaw. “Are you trying to tell me that you’re supposed to be the cavalry? You’re the best that he could find?”

“Son, I’m the best there is. I’ve been hunting these creatures longer’n you’ve known how to put your britches on straight, and there ain’t nobody who knows their ways better’n I do. As far as I’ve heard the only value you bring to this mission is your inexplicable tendency to be in the right place at the right time. From now on kid, you answer to me.”

oh there is some parts i have been missing. great updates. michael loves liz...yeah right. i like liz's reasoning as to why he feels that way. poor tess and kyle and max. and this whole sean thing. man oh man. is he going to be in on the know? love it.