Fan Fic and More

I just wanted to stop in a tell you how much I really do love this fic. I am so glad you are reposting it : This is definitely one of my favorites!

Kara

Wow! There was so much there to talk about! First off, the reunion with Alex... That was so heart-warming! And I loved the little witticisms:

“Yeah, you’d be proud, Max, she almost blasted me herself,” Alex cut in again. This time Isabel glared at him, effectively silencing him.

She turned back to her brother. “It is Alex, Max. He proved it to me.”

“How?” Liz demanded suddenly, fiercely, looking like she felt this was all a cruel joke.

Isabel glanced back at Alex and remembered the kiss and she blushed again. “He showed me,” she said, looking at Liz significantly.

“So basically, you’re saying that we’re some kind of highly-rated TV show up there? Like Dallas or something?”

Alex grinned. “Yeah, but they knew exactly who shot ‘J.R.’” he said, pointing towards himself, “and they decided to do something about it.”

I almost fell off my chair for a moment there when I thought Alex was going to turn out to be a clone, but then he was the original item.

bloody brillant love how u brought alex back and that kyle said sorry to ava anyway can't waite for more

bloody brillant love how u brought alex back and that kyle said sorry to ava anyway can't waite for more

Part 24

“Mommy, where were you?”

Max grinned at Alex, trying to accept that this was his old friend. “Doesn’t care where his father was, just so long as Mommy is back.”

Alex smiled, but didn’t really process what Max had said. He was busy staring at the little boy who was now telling Liz all about the dream he’d had. “It was like the biggest bear I’d ever seen, Mom, like three times the size of the bears at the zoo and…”

Alex Evans trailed off as his eyes landed on the tall man staring at him. The boy’s first reaction was to hide, but he’d seen that man’s picture before. Alexander’s jaw dropped open and he hid behind his mother, pulling at her clothes frantically. “Mom, it’s a… there’s a ghost back there!” He’d meant to whisper, but in his enthusiasm he forgot. “It’s Aunt Izzy’s Alex, he’s a ghost!”

Liz smiled at him and shook her head, “No, he’s not a ghost, sweetie, I promise. We got a surprise last night, and found out that your Uncle Alex wasn’t dead like we thought. He came back to us, sweetie, it’s a miracle.”

Alexander frowned. “But where was he?”

“Well, honey, he was actually with our family in the stars.”

The boy’s eyes widened again, and he suddenly lost interest in his mother, walking up to Alex and looking at him. “You were up there?” he asked in awe, his curiosity overshadowing his timidity as he looked up at the figuring towering over him.

Alex squatted down in front of the little boy. This was his first tangible proof of how long he’d been away, and the realization hadn’t hit him until just then. Fighting past his amazement in order to answer Alex’s question, he smiled at the boy. “Yeah, I was up there, but I don’t remember too much of it… I was asleep for a long time…” He trailed off as he got a better look of the boy. He was struck by how much he looked like Max. He had his eyes and his dark hair. Liz’s genes were a little harder to recognize, but the child definitely didn’t have his father’s ears, which was one thing… He smiled.

Liz, following her son, introduced them formally. “Alexander Evans, meet Alex Whitman.” Heart bursting, she watched as the two shared a solemn handshake. The sight of her son with the man she’d named him for was almost too much for her, and she had to blink away her tears of joy.

“I’ve heard lots and lots of stories about you,” Alexander was saying, “Is it true you electrified a teacher’s desk?”

Liz laughed nervously. Her son had really been spending too much time with his Uncle Kyle. Before her friend could answer him, Liz took hold of her son's hand. “Okay, honey, how about we go get you dressed?”

Across the room, Kyle yawned. “Hey, since we’re all up, how about Guerin treats us all to a celebration breakfast in Alex’s honor?”

Michael glared at Kyle. “Why me?”

Kyle grinned. “Because Max can’t cook.”

Max frowned at him. “Hey, I can too.”

Kyle gestured towards the kitchen area. “Be my guest to prove me wrong.”

“Aw, Kyle, thanks so much for volunteering you guys so that us girls could sit here and be with Alex,” Maria smiled. Kyle was about to object, but Max and Michael each grabbed an arm, dragging him into the kitchen area with them.

With all three of them working, breakfast didn’t take long to prepare, and soon the seven friends and little Alex were scattered around the Evans living room, eating eggs and pancakes.

Kyle set his plate down first. “So, Alex, those ‘crazy alien things’ of yours… did you just get the basic package, or is there something else you can do?”

Alex frowned. “Something else? Like what?”

Maria shrugged. “Healing, mindwarping, dreamwalking, blowing stuff up…” she smiled at Michael, who rolled his eyes.

Alex’s eyebrows rose, and he shrugged. “I have no idea,” he admitted. “You really think I’ll have one?”

Maria nodded. “You’ve got to. I mean, Liz and Kyle both have special powers.”

Alex turned to look at the two in question. “Oh yeah?”

Maria smiled. “Liz gets premonitions every now and then, you know, a little hint at the soon-to-be future if we need it… mostly when things get intense, you know. And Kyle, well,” she glanced at Kyle. “He can show you what he does.”

“Please tell me he doesn’t have x-ray vision or something that could help him at gambling or anything like that.”

Kyle frowned at him. “Thanks a lot, Whitman.”

Liz laughed, shaking her head. “It’s nothing so fancy as that.”

Kyle looked at Alex, and suddenly there were thoughts in his head that weren’t his own. Great to know my friends think so much of me, huh Alex?

Alex blinked, then looked at Kyle. “That wasn’t… was that you?”

I can also hear thoughts that I’m supposed to. I mean, if someone concentrates on sending me a thought I can pretty much get it.

Alex looked at him and concentrated, imagining his thoughts flying from him and into Kyle’s brain. I don’t know what Liz is talking about, that’s about as fancy as they come.

Kyle grinned. “Thanks Alex, nice to know somebody appreciates me.”

Liz rolled her eyes, and Alex just let his gaze wander around the room. An irrepressible grin spread across his face. “So you’re telling me this room is literally full of alien hybrids.”

“Well, except for Maria,” Liz said.

Maria nodded, a smile playing on her lips, “Yep, I’m the only one left without some ‘snap, crackle, pop’ in me.”

Alex raised an eyebrow at her. “Are you telling me after all you guys have been through you’ve gotten through unscathed? You know sometime you might want to get shot just so you can join the alien league around you.”

Maria just laughed, but Michael had heard the comment and turned to glare at both of them. “Just for that you’re not invited to the wedding, Whitman.”

Alex and Maria both turned to stare at him as the rest of the room went silent. Alex found his voice rather quickly, and seeing that Maria seemed to have lost hers completely for the moment, he was pretty sure that this was the first she’d heard Michael utter the “w” word.

“So I guess you do have honorable intentions for my friend, then?” he asked, ignoring the spur, but Michael wasn’t even paying attention to him anymore, he was eyeing Maria expectantly.

“Michael, I…” she mumbled at long last, but she stopped. Her eyes were filling with tears, and Alex heard Michael swear under his breath before crossing the distance between the two of them and standing before Maria, touching her face.

Alex backed away, but he couldn’t help but hear the conversation the two had. Everyone else was breathless, trying to hear as well.

“I’m sorry Maria, I didn’t mean for it to come out like that. I was going to ask you this morning anyways. I had it all planned out, even, but your friend over there had to go and ruin all of that by showing up.” Michael glanced an affectionate half-smile at Alex, who was awed at Michael’s tenderness when it came to Maria. Was this really the same alien he’d punched in the face for hurting his girl?

Because the truth was, if they’d never gotten sucked into the alien abyss, he and Maria could have ended up together. It would never have been about the passionate, hopeless way they loved their alien counterparts, but it would have been just as good, in a different sense, since they had always been supremely comfortable around each other. Now he was just grateful that they had both found their true loves, and that they still had each other, too.

And as he watched, Maria was going from tears to laughter. Michael had a slightly confused, amused look on his face as she feigned anger, slapping him on the arm. “Michael Guerin, honestly. We’ve been together for fourteen some-odd years and you’re just now getting around to thinking that maybe we should get married?” But then her face softened and her eyes shined at him with love and hope and she smiled. “I thought you’d never ask me,” she said, before answering him with a kiss.

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

“So… you’re telling me that Tess’ double lives down the street and she has Max and Tess’ son with her.”

Alex was sprawled out on Liz and Max’s couch, looking at Liz, who sat in the chair nearby, her feet tucked beneath her legs. She’d dropped the boys off at school an hour before, and everyone else was at work. This was usually time she used writing, but today she was just savoring the company of her friend. She couldn’t help but think back to the last time they’d had a moment like this, when he’d been showing her his slides of the things he’d never really seen…

“Yeah,” Liz answered him finally, pushing away the memory and focusing on the present, wrapping it around her like a shawl. She smiled at Alex. “You should see her, Alex, she looks amazing. I mean… well, actually she looks just like Tess did, but you know… I’m just... I'm really proud of her.” She took a deep breath. “I know it’s going to be weird for you, but you’ll like her, I know you will. She’s nothing like Tess, really. She’s really kind, loving…”

Alex laughed at her, softly, and held up his hands for her to stop. “You don’t have to sell me on her, Liz. I’m sure Ava is a good person. I was just thinking what that must be like for you… seeing Zac all the time…” he trailed off, not wanting to intrude, but opening it up if she wanted to talk about it.

Liz bit her lip, staring into her cup of tea. “It’s getting better.” She shook her head at her own shallowness. “He’s a sweet kid, and he and Alex are the best of friends, which is really good. I was afraid that they wouldn’t get along, but they’re both so temperate, and they just, they love each other. ” She shrugged, sighing. “I know it’s not right, but I almost think of him as Zan’s son instead of Max’s…” She looked at her friend, frowning. “Is that really bad of me?”

Alex shook his head. “It’s understandable, Liz. I mean… it’s a really complicated situation.”

Liz smiled. She had told herself the same thing, but for some reason she felt better hearing somebody else say it, and the fact that that somebody was Alex Whitman made it all the better. While she and Maria had always had their obvious girl bond, Alex had always been her strength, her conscience. For the hundredth time that day she felt the loss of eleven years of their friendship. After missing the comfort of Alex's presence for so long, simply noticing that she had it back was enough to bring her to tears.

“I missed you so much, Alex,” she choked, tears blurring her view of him. “There were so many times I needed you… so many things you missed that you should’ve seen…”

“Hey, hey,” Alex said, sitting upright then, and inviting her to sit next to him with a gesture. Setting down her cup, she complied, and he wrapped an arm around her, hugging her to him closely. “I’m here now,” he said into her hair, running his other hand up and down her arm comfortingly. “I’m so sorry that I had to leave you guys for so long, but I’m here now, and I’m not going away again. And as to the things I missed... that just gives us more of an excuse to make new memories.”

When she pulled away from him she was nodding, and her smile was shining brighter than her tears. “I know… I know it.”

He smiled, soothing her hair and kissing the top of her head once, satisfied now that she was okay. After she took a deep breath, signifying that she’d calmed down, he grinned at her. “So… what are the chances of a guy getting an orange soda around here?”

Part 25

Kyle was tapping his pencil in a constant, if not steady rhythm. His right leg was moving just as quickly as the pencil, and he glanced at the clock, even though it was less than minute since the last time he’d checked.

He was mentally slapping himself every few minutes. He didn’t have anything to be nervous about, after all. In fact, for the first time in a long time, everything in his life was going right. There was absolutely no reason for the things he was feeling—his stomach was knotting, his palms were sweating… but still he knew without a doubt that he was fine, that he had nothing to worry about. And he’d been like this all day. It was almost as if—

He froze as the thought crossed his mind. It was almost as if he was channeling somebody else’s emotions.

He was surprised at himself. He’d gotten so used to feeling Ava on the edge of his consciousness that he’d started taking it for granted, and since he’d stopped resenting her presence there, he’d almost completely forgotten about it.

But now that he’d bothered to question it, he had no doubt that the feelings were coming from her. Wherever Ava was, she was nervous as hell about something… more than nervous. She was almost terrified. Kyle took a deep breath. Now that he knew where the problem was coming from, he had to do something about it.

Concentrating, he reached out to her… it wasn’t hard, of course. He found her almost instantly.

Ava? Are you busy?

She shouldn’t be, of course. It was the end of the day, things should be slowing down at the museum.

Her reply was hesitant, however. Um… not really… what do you need?

I just wanted to check on you… Are you okay?

Again her response took a moment, but this time it was full of false bravado. Of course. I’m fine, Kyle, why would you think—

Oh, cut it out, Ava. I know you’re worried about something. Is it Michael? Did he say something to you?

Her confusion was evident. Michael? Why would he?

At her question, Kyle wanted to hit himself. He hadn’t told her. Ava, I’m sorry… but I told him about you. I wasn’t going to, but I had to.

Kyle was amazed when her tension seemed to double as she took in what he was telling her. He hadn’t thought it was possible. You told him? Kyle, why would you do that?

He sighed. I knew you wouldn’t, I guess… He rubbed his face, attempting to send her comforting vibes, though he didn’t know if she was getting them or not. Well, then, if it wasn’t him, what is it? Is Zac okay?

He’s fine… I’m fine too, really.

He shook his head, even though she couldn’t see him. You’re not fine, Ava, you’ve been freaking out all day. What’s going on?

Shock was mixed into her emotional cocktail then, and she didn’t even try to hide it. How did you know that?

Kyle groaned in frustration. He wanted to shake her. Oh come on, Ava, I can feel you. I haven’t been able to concentrate all day because of you.

Her response was faint, and he had a feeling that if she were speaking to him, he’d have to strain to hear it. You can feel me?

He swallowed. He hadn’t been expecting that. Yeah… I mean… you can’t feel me?

Again her reply was soft, and he felt something like awe begin to fill her. Not like that…

He was surprised at how much that disappointed him. Shouldn’t he be happy that she wasn’t privy to his innermost feelings? But he wasn’t. He felt cheated somehow. But this wasn’t the time. Something was bothering her and he needed to know what it was. So just tell me. What’s wrong? What’s got you so worked up?

Liz… said that Alex was back… That he’s alive…

Kyle waited, expecting more, but that was it. He almost laughed at her. You’re afraid of Alex? he asked, trying to be gentle, but finding it a little ridiculous.

How can I even look at him, Kyle? With everything Tess took away from him…

That had him straightening in his chair. She was almost on the verge of tears just thinking about it. Her desperation was cutting into him, and at that moment he wanted to be there… wanted to… wanted to hold her…

It’s gonna be fine, Ava, I promise.

He’s going to want somebody to pay for that, Kyle. Anyone would.

Again he found himself shaking his head. One or two office people were staring at him, but he didn’t even notice. Ava, he’s not like that. I promise you. You don’t know Alex. He didn’t even sound like he was mad at Tess. And he’d never hold that against you anyhow. He’s not that kind of person.

She was still unsure, though, he knew, and her answer confirmed it. I don’t know if I can meet him yet… Maybe if I waited a bit…

But you have to come tonight, he thought, without meaning to. It was true, though. He wanted her there, if for no other reason. We’re having a big joint celebration dinner…

Joint?

He smiled. Yeah, you’re brother’s getting married. Did Liz not tell you that?

She must have forgotten…

Hey, listen, how about you wait at the museum, I’ll come there and we can go back together, would that be better?

You don’t have to do that.

I know. I want to. He smiled. It’s a date, then.

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

“Are you sure when you talked to that Future Max guy that he said the world would end in 2014? Are you sure he didn’t say it would happen a little bit earlier than that? Like I don’t know, tomorrow or something?”

Liz glanced at Maria an almost worried expression on her face. Maria had been the first one home from work, and the pair of them had been watching as Alex entertained his two nephews, and suddenly Maria had grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into the bedroom. Liz hadn’t even been able to ask what was going on, before Maria had started, and Liz was confused at the question.

“First of all, you’re right, I was having way too good of a day. Thank you for spoiling it by mentioning one of the worst experiences of my life,” she said sarcastically, but Maria only waved a hand and shushed her.

“Oh come on, Liz, get over it and answer the question.”

Liz stared at her friend, no idea where she was going with her line of logic, but seeing that she was serious, so she answered her seriously. “No, Maria, he definitely said 2014.”

“You’re sure? Of course you’re sure. Well, you guys did change the future, so maybe it’ll happen earlier, you know.”

Liz was trying to process what her friend was saying, but her rambling wasn’t translating at the moment. Grabbing hold of Maria’s hands, she forced her to stand still and look at her. “Maria, why are you talking about the end of the world? What’s gotten into you?”

Maria was looking back at her like she was slow. “What’s gotten into me? Liz, take a look at my life right now!”

Liz stared at the familiar face opposite her, trying to think of something really bad or stressful in Maria’s life that she’d been overlooking somehow.

Maria was watching her, too, knowing what she was doing, and at Liz’s confused, questioning look, she nodded. “Exactly, Liz. Think about it. Everything is perfect.” She shook her head, looking astounded. “My best friend in the world, excepting you, of course, came back from the dead after more than eleven years. And to add on top of that, Michael Guerin, Mr. Stonewall Spaceboy himself asked me to marry him. All within twenty-four hours. The world is going to end.”

Liz was looking at her friend’s somber face and she couldn’t help it. She giggled.

Maria did not look amused. “Liz, I’m serious,” she said, getting annoyed when Liz’s laughter didn’t stop.

Liz wrapped her stoic friend in a hug, trying and failing to contain her laughter. “I know you’re serious, Maria…” she said, finally looking at her friend in earnest as she pulled away, holding Maria’s hands in her own. “Really, though, nothing is going to happen, you know that. This is just a case of the DeLuca hysterics… everything is going to be fine.”

“DeLuca hysterics? Liz, you’re the one laughing like an insane woman here. I’m being perfectly rational.”

Liz smiled. “Perfectly rational? Maria, you’re predicting that the world is going to end because you’ve been having a good day.”

Maria tried to argue against that one, but she found an obnoxious smile tugging at her lips instead. “Okay… so maybe I’m going a little over-the-top here…”

Liz shrugged. “It’s your way of dealing with things, Maria, it always has been.”

Maria sighed. “Yeah, I guess so…”

“Better now?” Liz smiled.

Maria nodded, and Liz turned to return to the main room. Before she could do so, though, Maria grabbed her arm. Looking back, Liz saw an incredibly silly grin on her friend’s face. A pre-happy dance, giddy kind of grin. “Liz… I’m getting married!”

Part 26

Ava raised her hand to knock on the door in front of her, but she stopped just before her hand made contact. The door looked the same as it always did, but for the first time she was terrified of passing through it. Even the first time Kyle had brought her here she hadn’t been scared—she hadn’t had time. But now she was petrified.

“Could you please just go in and tell Zac that I’m waiting for him?” she pleaded.

Kyle rolled his eyes. “You’re going to have to meet him eventually,” he said, and before she could object he was reaching in front of her and knocking soundly on the door, pushing the door open and consequently pushing her into the room, his hand on the small of her back.

The apartment was all but crowded as she and Kyle were the last there, and they had barely stepped inside when Zac had run up to her, grinning. “Mom, you won’t believe it, Uncle Alex said that when he gets one he’s gonna teach Alex and me to play the guitar! Isn’t that cool?” he asked excitedly, but then Zac looked past her, and his smile fell. “Why are you with him?” Zac asked flatly, frowning at Kyle.

Ava’s eyes widened, surprised. “Zachary! Honey, that wasn’t very nice,” she glanced back to Kyle, apologetically. She was still floored at exactly how perceptive Kyle had been towards her earlier that day, and she was equally stunned by how thoughtful he’d been in trying to calm her down. She couldn’t afford for him to be scared away now, even by her son.

Zac shrugged. “He’s not nice either,” he said sullenly. “He’s not nice to you. He never has been.”

“Kyle apologized to me, though, and we’re friends now,” Ava said, wondering what had gotten into Zac. He’d never particularly liked Kyle, but since he’d seen the flowers Kyle had given her he’d been much more vocal about it. Zac just shrugged, and went back to where he’d been playing with Alexander.

Ava turned to apologize to Kyle, but he held up a hand. “It’s okay, Ava, really,” he said. “He’s right, after all. Flowers and a ride home don’t make up for everything—”

She held a hand up. “We’re not going to have this conversation every day, Kyle. I’ve forgiven you, okay? It’s over.” She realized that the two of them were still standing in the doorway, only halfway in the apartment, and she gave him a nervous smile. “Well, I guess it’s now or never…”

When they stepped into the room and closed the door behind them, Liz was right there, smiling and ready to greet them, giving Ava a hug and smiling at Kyle. “Hi, guys. Ava, I hope you and Zachary are staying for dinner.”

Ava swallowed, trying not to stare at the tall man standing behind Liz, and smiled at her friend. “Yeah, that would be wonderful, thank you, Liz.”

Liz turned, moving so that Ava was now facing Alex instead. “Ava, this is our Alex.”

Ava knew that Liz was watching her, an almost concerned expression on her face, but she was watching Alex carefully for some sign of what he was thinking. She was surprised that there was no anger, no hate in his face. Instead, he simply looked interested, and maybe a little nervous.

“Lizzie said you looked like her,” Alex said without preamble, “but I had no idea how much…”

She tried to smile politely, but that statement wasn’t exactly encouraging, and she still had no idea what he was thinking. She must have also stiffened slightly, without noticing, because Kyle’s hand went to her shoulder, and he was whispering in her mind encouragingly, You’re okay. You can do this.

She wondered if Kyle was also speaking to Alex, because he glanced behind her for quickly before shaking his head, as if clearing it. “Forgive my staring. I’ve been in a coma since April of 2001, so as far as I’m concerned I only met you a couple months ago… I have to keep reminding myself that so many years have passed…” He shook his head again, this time seeming annoyed at himself for babbling.

That was a little more encouraging. “You want I should talk with the accent?” she said, managing a smile this time as she easily slipped into the tongue she had trained herself out of years ago.

He shook his head. “No, that won’t be necessary,” he smiled, holding out his hand. “We were never properly introduced back then. I’m Alex Whitman.”

Ava took his hand. “Ava Spencer. And I just want to say that I’m sorry for anything Tess did,” she finished in a rush.

Alex raised an eyebrow. “Oh you are, huh?” he asked, folding his arms over his chest, and straightening up to reach his full height. “Well you should be.”

Ava felt her mouth drop open, but before she could say anything, Maria, who had been edging closer to the little group, suddenly reached up and whacked Alex upside the head—hard. “Jeez, Maria! I was only kidding.”

“I know that,” she snapped. “But Ava didn’t. You’re gonna scare the girl half to death.”

Alex, still rubbing his head, then turned a good-natured, apologetic smile to Ava. “Sorry. I really was only kidding.

Ava managed to mumble a “That’s okay,” but only barely. What had just happened here? Not only did it seem that Alex was not holding anything against her, but Maria, who had up until now treated her civilly at best, was jumping to her defense. And to be honest, she was confused.

Her confusion started to clear a moment later, though, when Maria turned to her, smiling the DeLuca smile. “I suppose you heard that your brother and I are getting hitched?”

Ava had heard from Kyle, of course, but she couldn’t help but blink. “Your brother.” Maria had said it so casually, as if it was a given, although Liz’s audible gasp told her that it wasn’t a well-known fact. Ava nodded hesitantly. “Kyle told me.”

“Good. The girls and I are all meeting next Saturday to get the planning started,” Maria grinned in anticipation. “You’ll be there, right?”

Again, Ava blinked. “Are—Are you sure?”

“Of course, why wouldn’t I be?” Maria asked gently, and as Ava locked eyes with the other woman, she saw the sincerity there, the unspoken apology in the blue-green eyes.

Ava smiled then, knowing how hard Maria was trying, and that she needed her to accept this. “Of course I’ll be there.”

Maria smiled. “Good,” she said, pulling Ava into an impromptu hug. “You should go talk to Michael,” she whispered, as she pulled away, giving her an encouraging look.

Ava nodded before extricating herself from the small grouping there, and making her way over to where Michael was sitting alone, acting as if he hadn’t been watching her since she’d walked in the door. It took her a moment before she could speak. In a lot of ways her relationship with Rath had damaged her as much as Zan’s. While she had loved her brother once, she had always been intimidated by him, and because of that he’d thought her to be weak. She had been weak. Facing Michael as her brother now brought all that weakness back to her, and her voice shook slightly as she spoke. “Michael… congratulations about you and Maria. That’s wonderful.”

He gave a gruff nod. “Thanks.”

She swallowed, knowing that his brusqueness was only to keep his emotions in-check. It had always been Sedrath’s way. But that didn’t make it easier. “And about the other… I’m sorry I didn’t tell you myself.”

Again he simply nodded, not quite looking her in the eye. “Me too.”

She waited for a long moment for him to say more, but he didn’t, and when she felt the tears pricking her eyes she gave a soft nod of acceptance and turned to walk away.

“Hey,” he said, grabbing her arm and turning her around. She was surprised to see that not only was he looking directly at her, but he was smiling. “Come here,” he said, standing up, and pulling her into a bear hug, holding her tightly for several seconds. “I know I’m not really your brother,” he said as he pulled away from her, “And… uh… I screw up a lot, so I don’t know if you even want me as a brother. But I’m here if you need me.” He was mumbling by the time he was finished, his eyes roaming the floor, so he didn’t see her wiping a tear away.

She took a cleansing breath and smiled at him before she surprised him by hugging him tightly again. “Michael… of course I need you. Thank you.”

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

The rest of the evening was much more lighthearted, the conversation generally going back and forth between everyone teasing Michael about his tardy commitment skills and everybody fighting to tell Alex all about the things he’d missed over the years.

It didn’t surprise Alex that the majority of the storytelling was being done by Liz and Maria, each of them telling stories about each other, ranging from Lizzie’s brush with the law to Maria’s noble refusal of a strings-attached stardom. And as much as Alex loved listening to his two best friends, he had to admit that there was someone else he wanted a word with.

Finally, after Ava had left with Zac and Liz had had to put her son to sleep, Alex found himself following Isabel back into her room.

Alex shook his head as he sat down on her bed. “Thanks for getting me out of there. This whole being the center of attention thing is exhausting,” he grinned.

Isabel acted as if she didn’t hear him. “Get up,” she said shortly coming to stand in front of him.

Slightly confused, Alex did as he was told, but he couldn’t help wondering what had brought on her sudden terseness. “Isabel?”

She was staring at his clothes distastefully. “If I have to see you in this outfit for ten more seconds I’ll scream,” she said, and before he could say a word she was waving his hand over his clothes, turning his black jeans to khakis and his blue shirt to a green t-shirt. When she was finished she smiled at him, relieved. “That’s better.”

“Um… I’m confused,” he admitted.

Isabel sighed. “You are never wearing that combination of clothes again.”

He smiled slightly. “Okay. Do I get to know why?”

She swallowed. “You know how when you asked me why I wasn’t surprised to see you I said I’d seen you a hundred times before?”

He nodded.

“I… I had,” she said simply, letting her eyes wander to the floor. “I would talk to you and tell you things… dream about you… and every time I saw you, you were wearing that same outfit. Knowing that you’ve been wearing it all day today too… It was making it really hard to believe that this wasn’t a dream,” she said, her voice quiet by the time she finished.

“Well… I never liked that shirt anyhow,” he said, once he’d let her words sink in. “I was only wearing it because it was laundry day,” he grinned, then, letting her know he was joking, and she smiled, feeling incredibly silly all of a sudden.

“Alex… I know what I just said sounds crazy…”

But he wouldn’t let her go on. “No, Isabel, it sounds… amazing. I would have expected you to have gotten over me years ago,” he admitted, and this time it was his eyes wandering the floor.

Isabel sat down then, looking up at him. “Alex… I don’t even know where to begin…”

He sat down next to her. “I know. Listen, I’m sorry about the kiss… I never would have done it if I’d really realized how much time had passed.”

She was staring at him, then, sadly. “As far as you’re concerned Prom was just the other day, wasn’t it?”

He sighed, deeply. “Yeah.”

She grabbed his hand, then, holding it in hers, needing to have that closeness. “I wish we could go back to then,” she said, marveling at how real his hand felt. How warm, how alive. “I wish we could just close our eyes and be back there. That it were as simple as that.”

He pulled his hand away slowly, sensing a “but.” “But it’s not, is it, Isabel?” He was surprised when she turned hurt eyes to his, and he shrugged. “That’s what you were going to say, wasn’t it?”

She shook her head, watching him. “I just… I just wanted to explain some things to you…”

“What, you mean Jesse? Isabel, I obviously wouldn’t have expected—”

But she cut him off. “Just let me talk for a minute, okay?” He stopped, nodded, and she took a deep breath, determined to do this right. “Alex, ever since you di—” she cut herself off abruptly. “Ever since you left us,” she corrected, “I went back to how I was before. To shutting people out and closing myself off… For a long time I’ve been afraid that I would never find anyone to love me again.” She took another breath, took a peak at his reaction to what was in reality a pretty common admission.

She was surprised to realize that he looked confused. His features almost made her smile with glee despite the uncertain way she was feeling at the moment. That befuddled look of his had always been one of her favorite Alex expressions.

He was frowning as if trying to put some puzzle together. “But what about Jesse?” he asked carefully, forming each word slowly. “I’m sure—”

“I loved Jesse,” Isabel inserted automatically. “Really I did. He was interesting and a little exotic and he was older and so smart… He went to Harvard for Law School.”

Alex’s confused look confounded. “You were infatuated with Jesse?” he asked, almost disbelieving.

Isabel cocked her head, thoughtfully. “They all told me I was rushing into it, that I didn’t know what I wanted, it was so soon after I’d lost you…” He grimaced slightly at this last piece of information, grateful that she wasn’t looking at him, watching her as she continued. “I knew exactly what I was doing.” She glanced at him sidelong. “I was clinging. I’d found someone to cling to and so I clung. I did it all on purpose. I knew it was rash, but…”

“Isabel, I don’t quite understand what you’re getting at,” Alex admitted. “I mean, I’m not going to stop you from telling me that you weren’t in love with Jesse, but—”

Again she cut him off. “That’s not it. It’s just… It’s just, no one’s ever accepted me the way that you did from the very beginning.”

The perplexity didn’t leave Alex’s face. “Iz, if Jesse asked you to marry him I’m sure he accepted you.”

A guilty smile lit her face then. “Well actually, another thing he could have divorced me for was marrying under false pretenses...” The way she grinned about it reminded him of an eleven-year-old Maria admitting to mischief.

Alex raised an eyebrow at Isabel. “Are you saying…”

Isabel laughed lightly. “When we were married, as far as Jesse was concerned the strangest thing about my life was that I was adopted when I was six.” Suddenly her expression darkened. “My secret was always pushing people away from me in one way or another. I just wanted somebody to love me who didn’t have to be involved in all of the alien abyss. But that didn’t work, of course.”

“How did he find out?” Alex questioned, still treading unknown waters with a little trepidation.

Isabel suddenly realized just how much of their history he’d missed. She felt like mourning him all over again, but differently this time. Instead she told the story of Michael and Metachem and the eccentric millionaire who’d owned it.

“Wait a second, you got shot?” Alex demanded, instantly concerned, even though it had happened years ago.

She nodded. “Right in front of Jesse. That was the problem. I started, um, reacting strangely… Jesse demanded that I be taken to a hospital and when he threatened Michael and Valenti, they had to tell him the truth.”

Alex frowned. “But you said that Max had been killed—which I don’t get by the way—transferring himself into some old guy and then resurrecting himself?—how did you possibly survive if he couldn’t heal you?”

Isabel looked at him oddly. “I almost didn’t,” she admitted. “But they had a doctor—a friend of Jesse’s—take the bullet out—” she paused as he winced at her words “and somehow Michael healed me. Since Max had kind of died Michael sort of adopted Max’s powers for a while.”

Alex sat back for a moment, absorbing what he’d heard, until he remembered the original line of conversation. “So you’re saying Jesse couldn’t deal with the alien thing?”

Isabel bit her lip. “Jesse loved me,” she said clearly, as if she was trying to convince both Alex and herself. “He did love me, and he tried to accept me, but it was just hard for him. I’d lied to him for so long that he said he didn’t even know who I was. He almost left me…”

Alex frowned at that. “You’re not telling me that you were barely off your deathbed and all your husband could think about was the fact that you hadn’t been completely honest with him.” He said it as a statement, but she knew that it was a question, and she nodded.

“Yeah, it went something like that.” Isabel felt a shiver down her spine when Alex’s eyes flashed and he looked as if he would hunt Jesse down and clobber him for having casually hurt her so many years ago. “It’s over now, though,” she said calmly, bringing Alex back to her. “It’s been over for a long time. I’ve been pretty much over Jesse for a few years, really, and now that you’re back, well I can let him go completely.”

Alex suddenly felt as if it was his turn. “Isabel… I don’t want you to just accept me because I’m back and I want you to, or because I already know your secrets either. I want you to want me.” He flashed a grin, thinking of the song. “I need you to need me, Iz.”

Isabel smiled. “Well, I’d love you to love me, Alex Whitman. I mean… it’s going to take some time, but that’s what I’ve been trying to tell you this whole time. And don’t ever think that I’m just accepting you.” She shook her head, looking at her hands again. “Since you’ve been gone I haven’t really been me. I tried to be me again with Jesse, and that lasted for a while, but ever since we left Roswell I’ve been losing myself. I’ve been slipping away, and no one’s been able to stop me. But you’re my rock, Alex,” she said, taking his hand again. “You keep me grounded and anchored and safe. I told Max once that he was my home, and he is, in a way, but having you back is really like going home, Alex.” She looked up at him, nervously. “And I don’t ever want to leave home again.”

Alex stared at her, amazed, and kissed her gently. “I don’t think that’ll ever be a problem, Isabel.”

Part 27

“Well I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m tired,” Michael announced a few minutes after Alex and Isabel had left to talk. One glance around the room confirmed that everyone was pretty tired, though, and rightfully, too. They had all been woken up extremely early, after all, and by now the Alex-induced energy high was beginning to wear off.

“If you do anything to interrupt those two when you go in there, you’ll pay for it, mister,” Maria warned her new fiancé as he headed towards the door.

He turned towards her, and rolled his eyes. “Believe me, I’ve had enough drama for today. I think those two would put me over the edge,” he said, but he smirked to let her know he was mostly kidding, not that she wouldn’t have known otherwise.

Maria rolled her eyes but smiled, and reached up on her tiptoes to give him a gentle kiss before he left the room.

When the door closed Liz looked at her friend. “You’re not going with him?”

Maria laughed. “Trying to get rid of me, Parker?”

“Of course not,” Liz quipped, pulling an arm around her oldest and best friend. “I was just curious.”

Maria sighed. “Michael’s had a long day… he needs a few minutes alone.”

Liz nodded. “I think we’ve all had a long day…” She looked at Maria seriously. “I’m really proud of you, you know. For Ava.”

Maria shrugged slightly. “I don’t have a choice, Liz. I was being stupid anyway. I mean, after all that’s happened… it just seems so petty, you know? And Michael’s wanted this so long… he doesn’t even know if he deserves it… You know how he gets.”

“I’m happy for him,” Liz said softly. She and Michael had never been the closest, per say, but that didn’t mean that they didn’t care a great deal about one another. They were all family, really.

“Besides… if even Alex is willing to trust Ava, not that I would have ever expected any different from him, but still… if even he can trust her I have no right to hold anything against her.”

“Alex did handle that very well,” Liz agreed.

Maria simply shrugged. “He’s Alex.” Liz nodded in agreement, and just as she was about to sidle away from her friend, Maria touched her arm. “You know it wasn’t just about Alex and Tess, right?”

Liz frowned. “What wasn’t?”

Maria sighed. “Ava. How I was treating her. I mean… that had a lot to do with it, but it was more than that. We’d finally been getting settled, Liz. Everything was working out right… and I was happy. Finally it seemed like all of the Czechoslovakian stuff was over. For good. I was even thinking that maybe we wouldn’t have to keep moving, you know? This really seemed like maybe we’d be able to really settle…” she sighed.

“And then this really vivid reminder of the past shows up and you realized again that our lives are always going to be different,” Liz said softly, pulling a comforting arm around her friend.

Maria nodded, wiping at the tears that suddenly threatened to spill. “I didn’t even want to give her a chance, Liz. I didn’t even think about the fact that it might hurt her.”

“Maria, you had a right to feel that way, though. It gets tough sometimes. It gets hard to remember that the alien abyss is a blessing more than a curse sometimes.” Liz’s mind ran through all the things her friends and family had been through ever since high school… It really was a lot.

“The good always outweighs the bad, though, doesn’t it,” Maria said then, smiling. “I mean… having Alex back is more than enough proof for that, and he’s just the tip of the iceberg.”

Liz nodded in agreement. “I wouldn’t change it for the world.” And she wouldn’t, of course. None of them ever would.

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

After they’d gotten home from the Evans’ and Ava made sure that Zac got to bed, she found herself sitting on her couch, letting the silence seep into her, simply trying to catch her breath.

So many things had happened in the past twenty-four hours she didn’t even know where to begin.

Michael had found out the truth. And he’d accepted it. More than accepted it, he seemed even more eager than herself to try to build a relationship between them.

Maria was finally accepting her, also, which likely had to do with her fiancé’s new attachment to her, but Maria’s reasons really didn’t matter to Ava, she was just grateful for the opportunity to finally get to know the other woman.

And then there was Kyle. She didn’t even know what to think. She was still trying to get her head around the fact that he had been able to feel her, even halfway across town. That alone was… monumental. She’d been so sure up until now that she’d been more open to their connection, as he’d made so sure to not even acknowledge it until the other day when he’d apologized. Of course now that theory was entirely thrown off.

And as glad as she was that he was now on her side rather than against her, it was all going a little too fast for her. She simply didn’t know how to deal with it. He’d gone from avoiding her like the plague to treating her like… She shook her head as the thought occurred to her, almost laughing.

It wasn’t like he was in love with her. Hello. They barely even knew each other, really.

And besides… she wasn’t cut out for love. Not like that. Hadn’t Zan been proof enough of that? She had been his “destiny,” and yet he had never wanted her. She couldn’t even hold any of it against him. What would be the point? It wasn’t his fault he didn’t love her, after all. It wasn’t his fault that she hadn’t been enough for him.

She had been made to love, but not to be loved. It was that simple. In that light, she could almost understand the things Tess, her other self, really, had done. Or at least the drive behind them. She had been raised into an obsession with Max Evans, had been forced into this unrequited love since she was a child. She must have just gotten sick of it all. Combine that with devastating powers and a belief that you were more important than humans anyhow… Ava shuddered.

Had their situations been switched, had she been placed with the other set of pods in the first place, could she have ended up like that? Deceitful, bitter, dangerous? Had it really only been a matter of circumstance that she was what she was instead of what Tess had been?

She had loved Zan, it was true, but it had never been a love of desperation, really. While he had never really reciprocated her feelings, he had always been there, had always cared for her and taken care of her. She hadn’t been told, like Tess, that Zan was the only reason for her being, that he was her sole purpose for existing. While she had felt something similar to those things herself, they had been the result of her memories, her dreams. Tess had been literally taught these things by Nasedo, the man who was supposedly their “protector.”

Ava bit her lip, though, as she allowed herself to face the one thing that contradicted her theory that their situations had formed them. Because Tess had been loved. She knew it. She’d seen it in Kyle’s face when he’d told her he was finally ready to let her go.

It was another reason for her to question what exactly Kyle felt about her. Because even now it was likely that it had nothing to do with her at all. Kyle had loved and hated Tess, presumably for good reasons on both sides. Now he was giving her a chance, but did he even see her as herself? She knew he said he did, that he was trying to, but things were going so fast she didn’t know what to think.

Still, something in her heart really wanted to believe that this was really just about her and Kyle. That he’d been telling her the truth when he’d said he didn’t want her to be Tess. Something in her heart wanted to believe that that flash of emotion she felt when she saw him had a right to be.

She wanted to believe that she and Kyle could make a fresh start. She wanted to believe it all. But she didn't know if she could.

Sorry I keep forgetting this. Glad you guys are enjoying it, though.

wow glad your posting your fic here.
I was always a big fan of roswell, especially AI but never i read any fanfics. But when i was browsing the web one day i came across them and ever since then i've been hooked. And one of the very first fanfics i read was your fic and ever since then i haven't stopped, so i want to say thank you for writing such a good fic and showing me the light so to speak.lol
Anyway keep up the good work, hope you write more fics.

Wow! Great parts! I loved Isabel telling Alex that he was her rock and her real home. :D
And this part was too funny!

Kyle set his plate down first. “So, Alex, those ‘crazy alien things’ of yours… did you just get the basic package, or is there something else you can do?”

Alex frowned. “Something else? Like what?”

Maria shrugged. “Healing, mindwarping, dreamwalking, blowing stuff up…” she smiled at Michael, who rolled his eyes.

Alex’s eyebrows rose, and he shrugged. “I have no idea,” he admitted. “You really think I’ll have one?”

Maria nodded. “You’ve got to. I mean, Liz and Kyle both have special powers.”

Alex turned to look at the two in question. “Oh yeah?”

Maria smiled. “Liz gets premonitions every now and then, you know, a little hint at the soon-to-be future if we need it… mostly when things get intense, you know. And Kyle, well,” she glanced at Kyle. “He can show you what he does.”

“Please tell me he doesn’t have x-ray vision or something that could help him at gambling or anything like that.”

Oh wow, thank you incognito! That's so sweet of you. There is another story of mine in AU if you're looking... but it's taking me forever to update it, so maybe don't look at it yet. lol And Gerry, your feedback always makes my day. :D

Part 28

When Max got home from work the next day, he was greeted by the sight of Alex Whitman drowning in a sea of newspapers.

“Hey Alex.”

Alex glanced up distractedly. “Oh, hey Max, have a nice day?”

Max nodded. “Yeah, sure… great.” But Alex barely seemed to hear him, and was already frantically back at his task. Whatever his task was… Max raised a questioning eyebrow at Liz who’d just entered the room, obviously having heard the door. She simply shrugged at him, a slightly resigned look on her pretty face.

Max crossed the room to her, hugging her and kissing her forehead. “What’s going on?” he asked her quietly.

She shrugged. “He’s been at this all day… I should have seen it coming but after all these years I almost forgot,” she whispered, glancing past her husband at the image of her friend once again bent over the coffee table.

“Forgot what?”

She turned her gaze back to Max and smiled. “I forgot that the only thing even comparable to a DeLuca freak-out is a Whitman one,” she murmured affectionately.

“Anything I can do?” Max asked.

Liz shook her head. “I doubt it. He just found out he was gone for eleven years, Max. he’s gonna need some time to adjust.”

“I’m gonna try to talk to him.”

“Max…”

But Max had already gone to sit near Alex, leaning in to see what he was looking at. “You know,” he started after a moment. “I have a feeling that if my sister hears you were looking at the Classifieds you’re going to be in trouble.”

Alex didn’t even look at him, but Max saw him roll his eyes. “You’re funny, Max, funny. I’m sitting here trying to deal with the fact that I’m hopelessly unemployable and you’re cracking jokes.”

Max blinked, but thought back to what he remembered about “Whitman freak-outs,” as Liz would call them. There were only two words to describe Alex when he was stressed out. Babbling and annoyed. Max glanced up at Liz and he could almost feel her telling him not to take him too seriously. “Alex, you know… there’s no rush into you finding a job or anything… You barely got back. Take a couple weeks, you know… get adjusted.”

“Max, before you get all set and ready to give me a heart-to-heart, I just want to let you know that I’m still trying to adjust to the fact that you actually impregnated one of my best friends. Don’t take it personally, but you’re not my favorite person right now.” Alex gave Max a weak smile, as if to let him know he knew he was being irrational, but couldn’t help it at the moment.

Max cleared his throat. “Does… does it help that I was married to her for almost five years before that?”

Alex snorted. “Maybe if I’d been around to witness those five years, but then I wasn’t, was I?”

Max frowned. “Um… I guess not…”

“Well, you’d guess right, my friend,” Alex quipped, unable to get the sarcastic note out of his voice.

Max glanced helplessly at Liz, who was watching, from the other end of the room, and she shrugged, trying not to smile, as she knew Max was trying so hard to help. She was obviously more amused at the situation than anything.

“So… is that bedroom okay?”

Alex turned in his seat and looked at Liz. “Did you put him up to this?”

Liz just smiled sweetly at him. “No, Alex, I did not put him up to this, my husband chose to speak to you on his own.”

Alex rolled his eyes. “See, there you go, using that word again… Lizzie, you’re going to give me a complex.”

Liz joined them, setting herself on Max’s lap and pulling her arms around him. “Alex, I hate to tell you this, but you're just going to have to get used to it.”

Alex threw his hands up in defeat. “Okay, okay… I can see your guys’ PDA ratio hasn’t gone down at all. I’m… I’m just gonna go into the other room…”

Before he got to “his room,” though, Liz called after him. “Hey, Alex, we’re ordering in for food tonight. Any requests?”

He shrugged. “Anything but Thai food,” he said, thinking back to his mind-warped food of choice. “If I never have Thai food again it will be too soon.”

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

Zac sat on the edge of his friend’s bed, swinging his legs. “So Aunt Maria and Uncle Michael are getting married?”

Alexander nodded solemnly. “Yep, and Aunt Maria said we’re gonna be really important in it. We get to be ring-bears.”

Zac laughed. “That’s ring-bearers, Alex.” He stuck his tongue out. “Weddings are boring, though.”

Alex shrugged. “Uncle Michael said it would be fun. We get to wear penguin suits!”

Zachary just laughed, not bothering to correct the other boy.

“And Uncle Kyle said that it’s a good thing Uncle Alex is back to distract Aunt Izzy, or otherwise she’ll go crazy planning the wedding for Aunt Maria.”

“Yeah, well what does he know?” Zac demanded, his entire demeanor having changed at the mention of Kyle, something which was not lost on little Alex.

Alex frowned. “Uncle Kyle knows a lot. He knows almost as much as Daddy, and Daddy knows more than anybody—except for Mom.”

Zac shrugged. “I still don’t think he knows anything. He definitely doesn’t know anything about me or my mom, even if he thinks he does.”

“Maybe he wants to get to know you.”

Zac shook his head. “He doesn’t care about me. He just wants my mom.”

“I think your mom might like him, too.”

Zac stared at Alex, wanting to argue that that wasn’t true, but he knew it probably was. “Yeah, but… he’s hurt her before. He might just hurt her again.”

Alex shrugged again, looking at his friend sadly. “Uncle Kyle’s not perfect, but he tries really hard. That’s better than a lot of people. And he didn’t mean to hurt her before, he told me.”

Zachary sighed, not quite believing Alex, but not wanting to think about it any longer. “So Aunt Izzy likes to plan things, huh?”

Alex’s eyes lit up at the topic change. “Oh, yeah. You should see her at Christmas…”

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

Meanwhile, the other Alex was lying on the bed in the spare room—he couldn’t rightfully think of it as his room—and frowning at the ceiling when a light knock came on the door. He rolled his eyes and sat up, sure that Liz was coming in to do damage control. She may be married with a kid, but in eleven years Liz Parker had not changed one bit.

“Come in,” he said, sitting up, and then shook his head, annoyed at how… well, annoyed his voice sounded. He loved Lizzie to death, but he really needed some time to think here.

The door didn’t move for a long moment, and Alex was about to repeat himself louder when he finally saw the handle move, and the door opened slowly, and he was surprised when he saw that it wasn’t Liz who was entering the room.

“Isabel! What are you doing here?” he asked as he straightened, standing up to greet her, as she glanced into the room uncertainly.

“Is it okay if I come in for a minute? Liz said you kind of wanted to be left alone…”

“Oh, no. Come in. Don’t worry about it,” he said, waving her in with his hands and sitting back down on the bed.

After shutting the door behind her, Isabel sat down lightly next to him. It struck him once again that she still smelled exactly the same. Her hair, her perfume… everything. When everything else had changed so much, it had all stayed exactly the same. A little floral, a little spicy… just Isabel Evans.

“You look like you’ve had a long day,” she said quietly, picking up his hand and pulling it into her own.

He sighed. “More like Liz has had a long day of putting up with me,” he said.

She laughed lightly. “Well, luckily Liz knows you better than just about anyone. I’m sure she’ll be fine.”

Alex nodded. “Yeah, she’ll be okay… I said some really dense stuff to Max, though.”

Isabel raised an eyebrow. “Oh yeah? Like what?”

Alex looked away from her, abashed. “Well for one, I yelled at him for getting Liz pregnant.”

Isabel jumped slightly at that. “Liz is pregnant?”

He shook his head, running his free hand through his hair. “No, I mean about before.”

She stared at him. “You mean Alexander?”

Alex nodded miserably, and Isabel laughed. He thought about taking offense at her obvious merriment over his ridiculous behavior but he didn’t bother. “The fact that he was well-named does make up for a lot,” Alex mused.

Isabel nodded, an amused expression on her face. “It most certainly does.” She waited for a moment before changing the topic. “So… what’s this I hear about you rummaging through the classified ads?”

Alex rolled his eyes. “That’s it, I’m going to kill your brother.”

“No seriously,” she said, tugging at his hand so that he would look at her. “I mean, you just got back, Alex. You don’t have to rush anything.”

He rolled his eyes. “Is this the Evans mantra today, or what?” he demanded.

“Alex, just tell me what’s going on. What’s got you so worked-up? You seemed fine yesterday.” And then she stopped, figuring out the answer on her own. When she spoke again, her voice was soft. “It’s finally hitting you, isn’t it?”

Alex sighed, leaning back on the bed, tired all of a sudden. “You know, that night, after the Prom… my entire world was perfect. For once in my whole life everything was going right. I had my friends, my family. I had you. I could’ve gotten into MIT or any other computer program in the country without barely lifting a finger.” He paused for a minute. “And then the next thing I know I’m waking up in this completely foreign room on a planet with three suns and green clouds… and I’m sent back here and I find out that one of my best friends is engaged, the other one is married, with a kid… and I don’t even have a high school diploma. I’ll never see my parents again, I’ll never even see my home again… and to add on top of all of that, I really, really miss my guitar.”

Isabel couldn’t help but laugh at this last one, smiling at Alex sadly. “Well, I’m sure we can replace your guitar.” She frowned then. “As to the rest… I’m so sorry, Alex. You have no idea how sorry I am. I mean, eleven years of your life were stolen all because we trusted the wrong person…” She shook her head.

Alex pulled himself into a sitting position again and pulled an arm around Isabel, not even noticing that he was switching from comforted to comforter. “Hey… price of admission to the I-Know-an-Alien Club, Iz. It’s not your fault, you know?”

She sighed. “I know… I just wish this weren’t so hard for you. I mean, for the rest of us… for me… the hard part is over because you’re back with us. We have adjusting to do too, but it’s nothing in comparison to what you must be going through. I keep thinking… if we hadn’t dragged you into all of this alien mess to begin with—” Alex started shaking his head, but before he could say anything Isabel continued, “—none of this would ever have happened to you. You would be somewhere else, right now, living a successful, happy life.”

“Maybe,” Alex allowed. “Or maybe I’d be somewhere all alone and completely miserable. Either way, I wouldn’t be sitting here with my arm around the most beautiful woman on earth.” Isabel rolled her eyes, but this time it was Alex who wouldn’t let her interrupt. “Isabel, don’t you dare even think that just because I need a little time to get used to how things are now that I would ever even think of giving any of it up. I mean… knowing you alone, Isabel. It’s worth it. It’s worth all of it.”

And Isabel smiled, her heart letting go of the half-formed doubts in her mind. Because somehow, she believed him. She believed him more fully than she had ever believed anyone in her life.

Part 29

When Kyle got to work the next morning there was one message on his voicemail. Listening to it, he went from smiling at the voice to frowning about the message before the few sentences were over.

“Hi, Kyle? It’s Ava. I’m dropping by for lunch, alright? If you’ve already got plans let me know, but I think we really need to talk… I mean… things have been a little crazy between us, and I think we need to figure a few things out. So anyhow, I’ll see you then.”

Despite the short length of the message, he was musing on it all morning. He could hardly believe that he was getting the “we need to talk” bit already, seeing as how they hadn’t even started a relationship really, but the thought hardly even sank in. What had him frowning was her voice. Her tone throughout the message had been somber, and she’d sounded almost worried, as if she was nervous about something.

He couldn’t blame her, really. Saying things had been “a little crazy” between them was an understatement, to say the least. Things had been complicated, confusing and, at least on his side…cathartic. But that was his side. There was no doubt that Ava had had the harder time of the two of them—he’d made sure of that after all, hadn’t he?

Sure he had rushed in and played the hero the other day when she’d been nervous about meeting Alex, but that really hadn’t been necessary—Alex obviously wouldn’t have treated her any differently, even if he hadn’t been there at her side. She would have been fine with or without him.

Still, she’d barely had time to catch her breath with everything that had been happening lately. She was barely given time to adjust before something else large and life-changing occurred.

And he couldn’t have been helping that. He was practically forcing a relationship on her all of a sudden, after deliberately forcing her away from himself, as well. She may have forgiven him for his imbecilic acts, but he had not.

She was right, they needed to talk. More than that, they needed a real chance to try and build something up… they needed to get to know each other. Get accustomed to each other’s habits, figure out each other’s pet peeves… learn how to order each other’s coffee. For the rest of their lives.

He shook his head slightly at the thought. Maybe it was something to do with the alien mumbo-jumbo involved… but either way, he couldn’t deny it. Ava Spencer had put a force on him, and he wasn’t about to let her go.

“So is this the small hometown you always told me about?”

The voice that cut into Kyle’s musings was sarcastic, scornful, and he froze, frowning. He knew that voice. There was no way that voice was in New York City.

Spinning around in his chair he was met with a five-foot-eight beauty with dark curls and darker eyes in a navy blue business outfit. Kyle felt his jaw literally drop open. Standing before him was Los Angeles’ very own Sara Wilkins.

“Sara,” he managed, when he found his voice. “What are you doing here?”

She shook her head. “No, Valenti, the question is, what are you doing here? I thought you were going back home to ‘sort out some family stuff.’”

He swallowed. “Yeah… well, I did.”

“In your little hometown of New York City?” she asked scoffing, obviously not believing a word he said.

“Sara… I can explain…” he muttered, knowing full-well that he couldn’t really… it was just an automatic response.

“Well you can certainly try,” she said, looking him up and down, appraisingly. There was a hint of a smile behind her eyes… As mad as she might be at him, she was glad to see him, after all. “Get up,” she commanded him.

He stood obediently, but was surprised when she nodded towards the door. “Come on, let’s go.”

“Go? Go where?”

She raised an eyebrow. “When in the big city do as the big-city folk do, right?” she asked. “So we are going to do lunch.”

“No,” Kyle said, automatically, his mind replaying Ava’s phone message once again. “I’ve got plans.”

She glanced past him. “Not according to your desk-planner,” she said, raising an eyebrow at him.

He looked, and sure enough, the desk-planner was empty. “Come on, Sara… this is me we’re talking about.” He picked up the planner—a gift from Liz—and flipped through the pages. All of them were empty. “Am I really the type to write stuff in a planner?”

She frowned at him, then. “Come on, Kyle. I fly out tomorrow morning. It’d be kind of nice to just talk… you know, for old times?”

Kyle closed his eyes briefly. If there was one thing he hated, it was being stuck between a rock and a hard place. If he went with Sara when Ava was already apparently upset about something, things with her might just get worse again before they got better, as he hoped. But this was his last real chance to set things right with an old friend, even if he never saw her again.

While he knew he might be making a mistake by doing it, he reached out to Ava with his mind, apologizing to her the minute he found her. Ava, I’m sorry… something’s just come up. I can’t meet you today.

He was surprised when he felt her slight incredulity. Something, or someone? she asked wryly.

He frowned, turning slightly away from Sara. Why would she jump to that? Unless… He did a quick scan around the office, and sure enough, there on the other side of the room, standing just inside the door was a less-than-pleased Ava. When their eyes met she arched one eyebrow, shook her head slightly, and left.

Ava, you don’t understand…

He felt her sigh. It really doesn’t matter, does it, Kyle? It's none of my business anyhow. I’ll see you later.

He jolted slightly where he stood when she mentally pushed whatever part of him had reached out to her away from her again, making it clear that she didn’t particularly want to hear his side of the story at the moment.

Sara touched his shoulder, then. “Kyle, come on, let’s go… are you okay?”

He glanced at her. “What? Oh, yeah, fine. Yeah… let’s go.”

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

Isabel stood in the middle of an empty church hall and looked around herself, surprised. She really hadn’t expected to be able to do it, after all, but she’d somehow managed to find her way into her own subconscious. Kyle was right after all, it was possible to dreamwalk herself.

The church looked no different than it had in her last dream here, except of course for the fact that she was the only person there. Tonight there were no masses of people, no priest in white robes, no mystery groom.

She almost felt guilty for being here, as if it were a betrayal or something, but she couldn’t really do anything about that now, could she? Besides, Alex would understand.

She ran a hand across the top of the mahogany pew closest to her as she looked around the room once again. She bit her lip. He had to be here somewhere.

“Come on, Alex,” she whispered, staring down at the polished wood now. “I’m not leaving until I get to talk to you.” She took a deep breath, then, prepared to wait.

It didn’t take long, though. Alex was nothing if not courteous, after all.

“You shouldn’t be here,” a soft voice behind her answered, and she turned, smiling, to the seventeen-year-old boy who was leaning on the end of a pew a few rows behind her.

“Alex,” she said, walking towards him and pulling him into a hug.

He squeezed her back for a second, but pulled away almost automatically. “You shouldn’t be here, Iz,” he said, frowning at her worriedly. “I shouldn’t even be here.”

“You can’t even pretend to be happy to see me?” Isabel questioned teasingly.

But he wasn’t buying it. “Isabel, I’m serious. This is dangerous. You know you can get lost in a subconscious if you’re not careful, even your own.”

“I think I know my way around my own mind, thank you very much,” she snapped back at him.

He shook his head, though. “No, Isabel, you don’t. Believe me, I’ve been here a lot longer than you have, it’s not as easy as it looks.”

She took a deep breath, not really wanting to listen to him, so she changed the subject. “Why didn’t you let me say goodbye to you?” she asked.

He sighed. “Isabel, you don’t need to say goodbye to me. I don’t exist, remember?”

She turned away from him though. “I know that. That’s not the point. The point is that that was the second time I lost you without getting to say goodbye.”

“Not me, Isabel,” he corrected her. “Him. Besides, I’ve tried letting you say goodbye to me before. It didn’t work. Remember that dream in the Crashdown? Right after I died. I wasn’t supposed to come back after that night.”

“But you did,” she pointed out. “Why did you?”

“You mean it’s not obvious?” he asked.

Confused at that, she looked at him, shaking her head.

He sighed. “Come on, Iz. The connection. It’s still not strong, of course—nothing like Max and Liz’s or anything—but it was there. And because of it, you knew somewhere inside that Alex Whitman was not dead… that you would find him again. I was just the embodiment of that hope for you.”

She stared at him. “Are you saying… that you’re from the connection, too?”

He surprised her then with the trademark Whitman grin. “Come on, Izzy. You didn’t really believe I was one-hundred percent Isabel-Evans made, did you?” he asked, waving a hand up and down himself. “I mean, not even you know me that well.” He smiled. “Yet.”

Isabel gaped at him for a moment, not sure what he was saying, but when the meaning did make itself clear to her, she couldn’t believe she’d never thought of it before. “You mean… you’re part of Alex’s subconscious too?” she asked, amazed.

He smiled. “Something like that. More precisely, I’m a representation of the connection between you. When Alex couldn’t take care of you personally, his connection to you tried to make up for it.”

“So… he really has been watching over me all this time…” she frowned then. “But why did you try to get me over him, then? Why did you let me marry Jesse?”

“I did what Alex would have. He wouldn’t have wanted you alone all that time. He knows you, Isabel. He knows that you need people to share with, to love. He knows it better than you do.”

She looked over at the podium then. “The bridegroom in that dream the other night… that was him, wasn’t it?” she asked softly.

Alex smiled at her. “You already know the answer to that.”

Isabel smiled, too. She did. “Will we ever have the kind of connection Max and Liz do?” she asked, turning her attention back to him. She was surprised and more than a little disappointed when he just shook his head. “Why not?” she demanded, frowning. He could not tell her that they wouldn’t love each other enough, that they wouldn’t be close enough—she already knew they would be.

He smiled at her reassuringly, though. “Connections are different between different people, Isabel. You won’t have the kind of connection that Max and Liz have had. You wouldn’t want it. It’s just… not you.”

“Oh,” she said, simply. Because he was right, after all. She thought back to the thousand times she’d made fun of Max, or simply complained about his lovesick antics back in high school especially.

He glanced around the church then, the worried expression back on his face, and she could see that the light coming through the windows had muted considerably since she’d been there, as if it were getting cloudy outside. “You’ve really got to go now, Isabel. You can’t stay her much longer.”

“Alright, I will, I just have a few more things…” He looked at her uncertainly, but nodded, allowing her to continue. “If you’re part of the connection, why doesn’t Alex know about you?”

He shrugged. “He didn’t have to.”

Isabel took a breath. “Did he… I mean… did it work the other way, too?” she asked, softly. “While he was gone… did he have me there with him?”

Alex smiled at her then. “Alex was never without you, Isabel. Rest assured of that. He told you so himself, didn’t he? ‘Dreamt a thousand dreams…’ ring a bell?”

Isabel smiled at the memory, but the smile vanished as the room darkened again, even more noticeably. “You have to go now, Isabel,” Alex said, coming to give her a tight hug. “And I need you to promise me that you’ll never come looking for me again. You don’t need me anymore, and it’s not fair… to him, to you, to any of us.”

She nodded against his chest as she held onto him. “I know. I promise.” As she pulled away from him, she wiped a tear from her eyes. “I need you to promise me something, too.”

“What?”

She swallowed. “Promise me that I won’t forget about you.”

He smiled sadly at her. “That’s really not up to me,” he said.

She frowned at his answer, but knew he was telling her the truth. She would make sure she remembered him, some way. Feeling that her time there was at an end, Isabel pulled Alex into a hug again, and then, before she could argue with herself, before he could protest, she kissed him, pouring all her love and gratitude into the contact.

“Thank you. Thank you for everything you’ve done for me.”

He smiled at her. “Thank you, Isabel,” he said, kissing her forehead. Then he pushed her away from him slightly. “Now go.”

She nodded, as she prepared to wake herself up. “I love you,” she said, as she felt herself start to pull away.

He smiled at her, and she only barely managed to hear his response before she woke up. “I love you too, Isabel.”

Part 30

Ava got back to the museum and threw herself into her work, refusing to think about her disastrous encounter with Kyle. Unfortunately, though, there’s not much work a museum curator cab throw herself into, as there were no major tours for her to be worrying about and no new exhibits going up or anything… And so, despite herself, she found herself replaying the scene in her mind whenever she got a free moment, which was too often for her tastes.

She was so extremely annoyed at herself that she wanted to scream. Had she honestly flipped out just because Kyle Valenti had a lunch date? She told herself that that couldn’t possibly be it—she was just annoyed that he hadn’t bothered to tell her about it until the last minute. Because, honestly, what business of it was hers if Kyle had himself a girl? She didn’t even have a right to resent him for not telling her about it. They really were barely friends, after all. Even if they’d promised to be good friends… that didn’t really mean anything, now did it?

But all that talk about worrying about her, about feeling her through the connection… She couldn’t forget the feel of his hand on her back as he’d led her into the apartment the other night, how he’d told her stories about Alex’s dorkiness to calm her nerves on the ride over to meet him. That night especially she’d felt… protected, watched over. It had almost overwhelmed her—which is why she’d planned on meeting him in the first place. She’d wanted to explain how she wasn’t used to this… She’d never been treated like that in her life.

She thought of Zan. Zan had protected her, but he had never been particularly protective of her. To Zan she had been a possession, guarded but not necessarily prized. She’d been an obligation, after all, and no one really liked obligations when it got down to it.

Kyle’s actions towards her had obviously been out of obligation also. He still couldn’t forgive himself for the way he’d treated her when they’d first met, and so he was trying to make up for it by being overly nice to her. As nice as the sentimentality was, she didn’t want it that way. She was tired of being an obligation.

It was more than that, really. She couldn’t be an obligation anymore. Having that kind of knowledge… the knowledge that you were more of a duty than a pleasure to someone—even if it was a welcome duty—it was exhausting.

It was too much.

She even considered running for a moment. Hadn’t that been how she’d solved her problems before? But it wasn’t an option now, of course. First of all, there was Zac to think about. She couldn’t take him away from his family. Max and the others did technically have more claim to him than she ever could, despite the fact that she was his legal guardian. But she couldn’t leave him, either. She’d promised that she wouldn’t, and she would not break her promise to him.

Besides, she’d learned long ago that running from her problems didn’t mean you could separate yourself from them. No matter where she ran to, how far she went, she’d still remember. She’d remember everything. Memory—or at least her memory—was indeed persistent. There was no way running would solve anything for her.

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

Sara Wilkins had been in town on business, and running into Kyle Valenti had definitely been a shock to her, but if she thought that going to lunch with him was going to remind him of what he’d walked out on when he’d left her… well, she was sadly mistaken.

She wasn’t vindictive really, but she’d been hurt when he left. They’d been friends, after all, good friends, long before they’d gone out.

Kyle had tried to show her a good time at lunch, tried to keep the conversation going, but she could tell that his mind was somewhere else. When she’d asked him if there was anyone new in his life, his answer had been a hesitant “maybe,” but his look had been enough. She’d seen that wisp of a blonde at the office who’d vanished at the sight of her, after all. Kyle used to stay away from blondes, she remembered. It had been his cardinal rule for some reason, but he seemed to have broken it now.

This girl was different, she could tell. As much as it had stung when he’d left, she wasn’t exactly surprised. Kyle Valenti wasn’t exactly a long-term relationship kind of guy. He was like a big kid, somebody to have a little fun with and then… well then to forget. And the time to forget him had obviously come and gone. He’d forgotten her, after all.

Kyle had paid for her cab and gone back to work, off and on trying to get a hold of Ava, both telepathically and by phone, with no luck.

He couldn’t really blame Sara, of course. It wasn’t her fault that she’d run into him on the day that could very well decide his entire fate with Ava… ever.

Oh, lord. What if that was it? What if she never let him explain and they’d be stuck at friends for the rest of their lives? What had she said? She’d said that it hadn’t mattered that she didn’t understand, that it wasn’t any of her business.

Like hell.

As much as he didn’t blame Sara, that didn’t mean he didn’t resent her bad timing. Kyle had experienced some shotty luck in his time, but this was just about the shottiest luck he’d ever had.

Seeing Sara reminded him of the conversation he’d had with Maria back in L.A. About being the good guy. The one who does things right. And now, when he was pretty sure that it mattered the most, Kyle had been doing everything possible wrong since the very beginning.

If he’d been told a year ago that this was where he’d be—clumsily trying to hand his heart over to Tess’s “dupe”—he would have simply laughed in disbelief. No, that wasn’t quite true. He’d be angry at the absurdity of the idea.

It reminded him of back in high school—when he’d been so sure that Max Evans was doing something to Liz… making her fall for him. He understood what Liz had felt all too well now. Those connections, they were powerful.

“Connection” was such an odd term for it… It just seemed unfitting to him that a word that was used to describe something like a link to the internet could also describe his… bond with Ava. It didn’t seem intense enough… didn’t seem to have the warmth, the familiarity of it. The… intimacy.

Liz had told him once that Max had “put a force” on her. And that’s exactly how it felt. He didn’t have an option about his feelings for Ava anymore, not that he would want one. He didn’t even know exactly when it had happened, it didn’t matter. He’d fallen in love with Ava. Now all he had to do was convince her of it.

He had a feeling it wasn’t going to be an easy task.

Part 31

“Maria DeLuca wants a small wedding?” Liz scoffed in mock-disbelief. It was Saturday, the four girls had kicked the men out and taken over the Evans’ apartment in order to go over the details of the much anticipated DeLuca/Guerin nuptuals. “Okay, who are you and what have you done with my best friend?”

Maria rolled her eyes. “Laugh it up, Parker. Yes, I’ll admit that in the past I was known to dream of a rather extravagant wedding—”

“The words ‘fountains of roses’ come to mind,” Liz cut in, raising an eyebrow.

“Oh I still want fountains of roses, don’t get me wrong. It’s just that now I’d be okay if they were in some small garden rather than in a huge cathedral somewhere.” Maria sighed. “Besides… there’s no point in a huge wedding when there’s no one to come. We barely have enough people for a wedding party, much less guests.”

“Well, I’m sure you could find people to invite…” Isabel trailed off, knowing that that wasn’t entirely likely.

Maria laughed. “Outside of the group I know three people in New York City, and I’m not inviting the mail guy from work to my wedding. He’d probably think I was hitting on him.” The girls laughed, which only made Maria frown more. “No, I’m serious… this guy’s creepy,” she stated, before breaking into a smile herself.

“You know, I just happened to have looked up the public gardens in the area,” Isabel said, rummaging through the expanding file folder of pamphlets she’d brought with her.

“Just like you happened to have a list of churches in the area subcategorized by size and parking availability?” Liz asked, smiling mischievously at her sister-in-law.

Isabel rolled her eyes. “Okay, like Maria said, it’s not like we’re going to have a crowd on our hands here, but I couldn’t help myself, parking spaces were the one complaint we got when Jesse and I—”

Isabel cut herself off abruptly. Jesse.

In that instant she knew that she wasn’t off the hook. Just because Alex had returned, it didn’t mean that she didn’t have to finally end things with her ex-husband. She’d been assuming, foolishly perhaps, that Alex coming back was the answer. As if it took care of everything. But of course it didn’t, did it?

Isabel suddenly realized that the other three girls were watching her carefully and she blushed apologetically, but they all went on as if nothing had happened. These women knew her well, she knew.

“Speaking of ex’s,” Maria said, cutting the silence and glancing at Ava, who’d been quiet all morning, out of the corner of her eye, “Kyle said he ran into Sara Wilkins the other day.”

“Sara Wilkins? Los Angeles Sara Wilkins?” Liz asked, surprised.

“Yeah, he said she just showed up at his office building. She was there on business or something, somebody’d mentioned to her that they had a new guy who’d just come in from LA, and it just happened to be Kyle.”

“That’s odd,” Isabel said, finally having recovered from her reflections. “Well did they get to talk?”

“Yeah,” Maria said, watching Ava’s face through her surprise and curiosity with interest. “I think he was glad to see her, but I could tell from what he said that she showed up at a kind of inopportune moment, I guess… I don’t know, he didn’t say much about it.”

“When was this?” Liz asked, and Ava was grateful that she hadn’t been forced to ask the question herself. She had a feeling that Maria was setting her up here, but she couldn’t full-out give in. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust these women, and she knew Maria probably had good intentions, but there were just too many complications for Ava.

“Wednesday, I think.”

Wednesday. Which had, of course, been the day that she’d planned on having lunch with him. She really had overreacted, behaved like a fool. Still, this didn’t change anything. While she obviously couldn’t hold it against Kyle that he’d canceled their lunch date, she also couldn’t go on making Kyle feel guilty over having a social life. How ridiculous was that, after all?

Ava was glad when the subject was turned back to wedding issues, bridesmaids dresses to be more precise. As Isabel and Liz went back and forth over which was more forbidden—sea-foam green or tangerine orange—and Maria was talking about different shades of blue, Ava came to a decision. Kyle would never stop feeling guilty about her if they continued to play the damsel in distress. Because Kyle liked being the knight in shining armor, that much he’d made clear. Maybe, if she didn’t need a knight, Kyle would give up.

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

“I just had no idea it would be like this… I keep thinking of that part in Fifth Element where Lilu’s learning English by scanning through the encyclopedia and she’s learning about history and humanity and…” Alex trailed off at Isabel’s slightly confused expression. He’d been trying to explain his excitement over Czechoslovakian learning capabilities, but her face forced him to sidetrack. “Don’t tell me you’ve never seen Fifth Element.”

Isabel wrinkled her nose. “First of all, Bruce Willis isn’t exactly Brad Pitt. And second, anything that can lead Michael and Kyle to have an hour-long debate doesn’t really sound like my kind of movie,” she said, doubtfully.

Alex turned to Michael who was sitting on the other side of the room, and whose ears had perked up at the mention of the movie. “Hour-long debate?” Alex asked, impressed.

“We were talking about the importance of the diva,” Michael explained. “Kyle didn’t think she was a particularly imperative character. I disagreed.”

“Ah,” Alex nodded his understanding. He lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “Either way that fight scene would never be the same without her.”

“That we agreed on,” Michael grinned.

Alex turned back to Isabel, who now looked officially lost. “Really, Iz, you’ve got to see this movie.”

“Um,” was Isabel’s noncommittal response.

“No, really! I dragged Maria and Liz to the theater when it first came out, they both loved it. Honestly, it’s a total chick-flick… that just happens to have a lot of gunfire and heavy artillery mixed in.” She rolled her eyes and he grinned.

“So anyhow… what you’re saying is that studying for that GED test should be a snap now,” she said, trying to pull the topic off of old sci-fi movies.

“Yeah. I mean, I was a pretty fast learner before, but this whole advancement thing… it’s nice. You’re used to it, of course, but…” he shook his head in amazement. “This kind of learning ability and internet connections what they are nowadays… well I’ll be caught up on things in no time. Which reminds me… look at this.”

Alex got up from where he was sitting on the couch next to her, but returned soon, placing something on the coffee table in front of her. “It’s Liz’s laptop,” Isabel said, in an I-don’t-get-it voice.

“Yeah, but look,” he said, the excitement in his voice obvious as he touched the top corner of the screen, making a show of not pushing the on button. The small machine came to life before them. Isabel was about to tell him that they could all turn things on with their powers, but she stopped herself, and as she watched, he opened up a game of Solitaire and proceeded to win the game, all without moving his hand from the top corner of the laptop screen.

“What are you doing?” Isabel asked watching him.

“I’m playing with the electrons in the computer.”

“So you’re like… a human mouse?” she asked, not sure exactly what he meant.

“It’s more than that,” he said, as he went about opening and closing folders and even opened a document and started typing out the words to “American Pie”—all without touching the keyboard or the touch screen at that served in place of a mouse. “You see, it’s I’ve always understood how commands and mouse-clicks and things like that transferred to energy in theory, but now… it’s like I can actually feel it. I can feel how the electricity changes into colors and ideas and things on the screen…” he shook his head, not sure how to explain how indescribably cool this was for a computer junkie like himself.

“So… what does that mean?” she asked, obviously trying to be excited for him but not really knowing how, as she wasn’t much of a computer buff herself.

“Well, for one thing it means those Antarians are damn smart is what it means.” He grinned. “I’m assuming they did this on purpose, like how Max was designed to be a healer, etc. Or maybe it’s more of a personality thing, but anyhow… this basically means that once I get caught up on the updates in things like coding and the more technical stuff, I’ll be unstoppable. I mean, with insight like this I could create the most efficient computer ever. I mean… this is big. This is like Star Wars big. You have seen Star Wars, right?” he threw in sarcastically.

She returned his look blankly.

“Isabel!” Alex started, pulling away from her

She laughed, rolling her eyes. “Of course I’ve seen Star Wars, Alex.”

Alex made a dramatic showing of clutching at his chest and breathing heavily in a relief that Isabel suspected was only half in jest. “Don’t ever do that to me again!”

“Serves you right. I’m sorry, I’m just not used to having so many references to Sci-fi in one conversation. Were you this much of a geek in high school?” she asked, smiling at him sweetly.

“Yep,” Alex grinned, seeming to have managed a full recovery. “Hey, you’re the one who fell for me.”

Isabel’s smile widened. “I did, didn’t I?” She looked back at the laptop before them and grinned mischievously at him. “So, no more worries about being ‘hopelessly unemployable?’” she teased.

Alex smiled. “Nope, no more worries…”

“Good,” she smiled, leaning in to kiss him, when Michael cleared his throat suspiciously loudly. Isabel pulled away from Alex. “Don’t you have a fiancée somewhere to entertain?”

Michael grinned. “I do, don’t I?”

As Michael wandered off to find said fiancée, Alex pulled an arm around Isabel. “So, where were we?”

But now that Michael was gone Isabel seemed hesitant. “Alex, I’m really proud of you, and I’m glad that things are going to work out…”

“But?” he asked, withdrawing his arm as her pretty face formed into a frown.

At his slightly clipped tone she looked at him questioningly, and he shrugged. “Sorry, bad habit… that wasn’t a terribly encouraging tone of voice there…”

“Oh.” She couldn’t blame him, of course. She’d been depending on some form of Alex Whitman for years now, but he still had other memories fresh in his mind, memories of her turning him away for other men… Grant, that guy in Vegas… She wondered if this was the best idea after all.

Alex pulled her hand into his own, then. “I didn’t mean to scare you off there,” he said, his voice gentler, and Isabel realized he’d been watching her, waiting for her to go on.

“I just… I was just going to ask you a favor,” she said finally.

He grinned. “Is that all?”

“Yeah… I mean, it shouldn’t be very hard, and I could probably do it myself, but you’re better at these sorts of things… and honestly, I’d rather if you were helping me.”

He squeezed her hand. “Well, you know me, Alex Whitman, willing and eager to serve.”

She smiled her thanks for the sentiment, but still looked a bit doubtful. “I don’t know if you should say that until you know what I’m asking you to do.”

Alex seemed unconcerned. “What is it you want me to do?”

“I need you to help me find Jesse.”

Part 32

“She asked you to find Jesse?” Maria demanded in a contemptuous tone, as the three friends sat on Liz’s couch on Maria’s day off. There was a movie running on the TV, but no one was paying any attention to it.

Alex tried not to cringe. Yes, telling Maria had been a mistake, not that it was avoidable. “Maria, it’s not that big a deal.”

“Not that big a deal? Alex, this is huge. This is monumental, it’s gigantic, it’s—”

“Okay, Maria, I think he gets the point,” Liz cut in, trying not to smile at her friend’s antics, and shooting an apologetic look at Alex, who shrugged.

“I just don’t understand how she could say something like that to you,” Maria huffed. “I mean, how could she—”

“Ask me to help her locate the man she was legally wed to who she hasn’t seen in years?” Alex asked. “What’m I supposed to do, say no? ‘Sorry, Isabel, I refuse to help you find the one man who’s ever had more of a claim to you than I have.’ I don’t think so,” he said, rolling his eyes at the thought.

“Alex, that’s not true, you know that… I mean Jesse… he was just a replacement for you.”

Alex laughed, though Isabel had more than told him that herself. “Right… thanks, Parker.”

Liz pushed him lightly. “I’m serious,” she frowned at him, and he smiled at her reassuringly.

“So you’re really going to do it?” Maria asked, then, biting her lip and watching her friend’s face.

Liz, likewise was watching Alex. “You’ve already done it, haven’t you?”

Alex looked between the two girls sitting on either side of him, and he almost laughed. The worried way they were looking at him was probably uncalled for, but he had a feeling that they’d missed worrying over him for a long time, and so now that he’d come to them to complain, they were laying it on the concern as thick as they could. It was kind of nice, really.

“Yeah… well, it didn’t take long,” he shrugged, as if it was nothing. And honestly, he didn’t know what to think of it.

The other day after she’d asked him, he’d gone onto the internet and found the information she’d needed in less than half an hour. He’d given Isabel the sheets of paper he’d printed, the information he’d found, and walked out of the room. He’d told himself that he’d done it in order to respect her privacy, to respect her decision to do with the information what she chose.

He knew that wasn’t how she’d taken it, though. Even as he was walking away from her, he knew how she was looking after him, heartbroken with her own guilt, but making herself accept him distancing himself from this.

She was like that sometimes. She’d face this all on her own if he asked her to leave him out of it, no matter how much she wanted his support. It was the exact reason that he was willing to go through it all with her.

“Alex? Did you hear me?” Maria’s voice broke into his thoughts, and he raised a questioning look to her as she continued. “Is she going to talk to him?”

Alex lifted one shoulder in a shrug. She hadn’t said anything to him, of course, he hadn’t really given her the chance. But he knew that she would. There was no other reason for locating him.

Maria shrugged then, with some finality. “Doesn’t matter, really. Jesse’s married, Isabel’s in love with you, story over.”

Alex laughed. “Yeah, hopefully.” He smiled and pulled an arm around each girl. “And if not, I’ve still got two of the loveliest ladies in the universe to keep me company when I’m low.”

Liz and Maria laughed, but Liz rolled her eyes. “‘Loveliest ladies in the universe?’ Don’t you think that’s a bit excessive?”

Alex shook his head. “You’ve got to learn how to take a compliment, Liz. Besides, I do believe that I’m the only one of us who’s ever seen another part of the universe. I’d like to think that I’m the authority on the issue.”

The three laughed again, and the girls gave each other a satisfied look. No matter what happened with Isabel, Alex would be okay.

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

Kyle knocked on Liz and Max’s apartment door. He just couldn’t take it anymore. Maria had told him that the girls had managed to explain to Ava who Sara was as well as they could, but he hadn’t had a chance to apologize to her himself yet.

He was still coming up against some kind of mental wall when he tried to reach out to her, too. If not for that, he would have been wheedling her mercilessly until she’d forgiven him. Well, wheedling and groveling. And begging.

What was really getting to him, though, was that even though he knew that she now understood about Sara, he had no idea what her reaction to it all had been. He didn’t know if she was relieved, upset… But Liz talked to Ava all the time. She had to know something.

So, understandably, Kyle was a little put-out when Max opened the door.

Max raised an eyebrow, a little surprised at his guest. “Hey, Kyle… what’s up?”

“Is… uh, is Liz here?”

Max shook his head, gesturing to where Zac and Alexander were playing video games. “No, it’s just me and the boys right now. I think she’s out with Ava and Isabel. Did you want to come in?”

Kyle hesitated. He and Max had been on good terms for years, of course, but weren’t best friends by any means. “I… was just going to talk to Liz…”

“Anything I can help with?” Max asked, and Kyle was almost surprised that he looked like he really wanted to. Evans was a good guy, after all.

Kyle shrugged. “I guess I was just looking for advice…” he trailed off. He wasn’t about to tell Max Evans that he was looking for tips with—

“Women?” Max guessed, and Kyle frowned at him. Max just shrugged, and glanced back at the boys again, or more precisely, at Zac. “Or, should I say one particular woman who’s out with my sister and my wife at the moment?”

Kyle smiled, finally. “I guess I’m pretty obvious, huh?”

Max nodded, a good-natured smirk on his face. He looked at the boys for a moment, and then stepped into the hall with Kyle, mostly shutting the behind him. “So what’s up with you two? If you don’t mind me asking?”

Kyle shrugged. “I don’t know, actually. That’s what I was going to ask Liz.”

Max raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

Again Kyle shrugged, “I haven’t been able to talk to her since the other day… she saw me with an old friend…”

“Oh, that’s right, Sara from L.A. Liz was telling me.”

“Yeah, and Ava kind of got the wrong idea…”

“And you want to know how she’s taking it?”

Kyle nodded. “Well, that and some other stuff… there’s just… there’s a lot of complications there, you know? With… Tess… and Zac…” Kyle could hardly believe he was saying all of this to Señor Presidente himself, but after that last sentence Max was nodding in earnest. And suddenly it hit Kyle. Of course Max would know about the complications Ava and Zac brought along with them… The guy was the kid’s father, after all.

“I guess this is all kind of weird for you too, isn’t it?”

Max’s shoulders slumped then, and he leaned against the wall. “You have no idea. Especially with Zac. I try talking to him, getting to know him… but I get the idea that he doesn’t really want anything to do with me.”

Kyle laughed. “Well, you’re not the only one there… I think the kid hates me. I don’t even know what I did…”

Max shrugged. “Well, you’re after his mom, maybe he’s just jealous…”

Kyle shook his head. “I don’t know, it feels like it’s more than that…” he shrugged.

Max thought for a moment and was about to say something when they heard laughter and turned to see Ava and Liz looking at them questioningly.

“Are you boys staging a coup, or what?”

Max rolled his eyes and greeted Liz with a kiss, but Kyle felt incredibly awkward to suddenly be face to face with the woman he and Max had been discussing. He heard Max asking where Isabel was, and Liz explaining that she had some other errands, but he could barely process the information.

“Ava… hi,” he fumbled.

To his surprise, though, she just smiled sweetly at him. “Hi, Kyle. How’re you?”

Kyle blinked. She was speaking to him! And smiling at him! “I’m good,” he managed, when he found his voice again. He heard a door shut and was surprised to find that Liz and Max had gone inside, leaving them to themselves. “Listen… I wanted to apologize about the other week. Sara was just an old friend, she was nothing… I mean, she was just a friend.”

“Really? That’s too bad, she was cute.”

Kyle’s head snapped up to look at her. “What?”

Ava shrugged. “I said she was cute. Kyle, I’m so sorry I overreacted the other day. I really don’t know what came over me. I mean, you’ve been such a good friend to me lately, and then I just blow up on you. I’m really sorry.”

Kyle stared at her, unable to work the machinery of his mouth. Such a good friend. No! That wasn’t what she was supposed to be saying!

“No, Ava, don’t even… I mean… I thought…”

But Ava was glancing at her watch. “Kyle, I’m sorry, I should really be getting Zac back home pretty soon, it’s getting kind of late.”

Kyle took a step back at her brusque tone. She wasn’t… she was. She was brushing him off. “Oh, well… I was just, uh…” he nodded towards his own apartment door, and she smiled at him.

“Okay, then. I’ll talk to you later then, I guess,” she said, squeezing his arm lightly as he turned and went into the apartment, confused, and more than a little miffed.

He didn’t see Ava sagging against the wall as soon as the door closed behind him. The perplexed look on his face, the slight hurt she’d seen in his eyes, had almost been enough for her to cut the act, but she was doing this for him anyhow… she had to remember that. She was giving him a way out, before she got in too deep.

As she turned to follow Max and Liz into their apartment, she tried to ignore the little voice in the back of her head. Get real, Ava. You’re already in over your head.

Part 33

“Dammit!” Kyle muttered, as the door shut behind him.

“Hey, I thought you were supposed to be above things like swearing, Grasshopper.”

Kyle jumped slightly, surprised to see Alex sitting on the couch, watching him. “What are you doing here?”

Alex gestured at the bowl in his hands. “Eating cereal.”

Kyle rolled his eyes. “No, Alex, I mean, what are you doing here? Why aren’t you next door?”

“Oh,” Alex nodded in recognition. “Uh… Isabel called while she was out with the girls,” he said quickly, looking away as if avoiding eye contact. “She… uh, she said I wasn’t allowed in my room until she called me back…”

Kyle laughed outright at Alex’s bashful look, forgetting for a moment his own dilemma. “You’ve really got that woman under your thumb, don’t you?”

Alex glared at Kyle. “Okay, go ahead, Valenti. Make your jokes. I’m whipped, I’m pathetic, I’m on a short leash, whatever… Believe me, it’s all gone through my head already. But what am I supposed to do? Isabel’s going through some stuff right now… I can’t afford to mess up with her right now,” he finished, in an upset tone.

Kyle’s smile faded at Alex’s words, and he dropped himself on the chair next to the couch. “I’m sorry, Alex… I’m a moron. I’ve just had a bad day… I say really stupid things when I have bad days.”

Alex shrugged. “Don’t worry about it.” He ate the last few bites of his cereal and set down the bowl, turning to Kyle. “So what’s got you coming in swearing, oh Enlightened One?”

Kyle rolled his eyes again. “What’s with all the Buddha jokes?”

Alex quirked a grin. “I missed how many years of harmlessly teasing you for your unlikely beliefs, okay, what can you expect? Now give it up. What’s wrong?”

Kyle sighed. “It’s Ava. She’s driving me crazy.”

“And by crazy you mean in love.”

Kyle frowned at him. “So what, everybody knows?”

Alex smiled. “Sorry to burst your bubble.” Kyle groaned in frustration and Alex laughed. “I wouldn’t worry about it too much… she seems pretty wrapped-up in you, too.”

Kyle shook his head. “You wouldn’t say that if you’d seen her just a couple minutes ago in the hall.”

“Oh yeah? Why’s that?”

Kyle shrugged, and Alex had to force himself not to laugh again. He imagined Kyle’s “sulky face” hadn’t changed much since the guy was four years old. “She just… totally blew me off. There was this whole misunderstanding between us and I was trying to explain, but she wouldn’t even listen to me. It was really weird, too. She was acting like she wasn’t even bothered by it anymore, like she never even was bothered by it. And she was definitely bothered by it when it happened.”

Alex shrugged. “She probably talked to the girls and they set her straight.”

Kyle thought over the short encounter, the brusqueness of it, and shook his head. “Nah… it wasn’t what she was saying so much as how she was saying it. She was talking to me like I was some random acquaintance of hers or something… She was trying to make it really obvious that I didn’t have any reason to apologize to her… like we weren’t that connected or something.”

“Oh…” Alex said, smiling all of a sudden in a comprehending, isn’t-that-cute way.

Kyle frowned at him. “What? What’s with the smile?”

Alex just shook his head. “Yeah, I really wouldn’t worry about, Kyle.”

“What? What are you talking about? I just said she’s treating me like she barely knows me.”

Alex nodded. “Yeah, don’t worry about it. Believe me. It’s a trick.”

Kyle sat up straight, his disbelief was obvious from his face alone. “It’s a trick? How do you know?”

Alex laughed at Kyle’s incredulous features. “Dude, Liz and Maria did that all the time in high school. Max or Michael’d do something stupid and they’d start treating them like they were service boys or something…” Alex smiled embarrassedly. “In fact, now that I think about it, I guess Isabel used it on me once or twice, too. Anyhow, the point is… all three of them caved after a couple days, most of the time.”

Kyle sank back into his chair, mulling over this new revelation. Finally, he shook his head. “Sheesh… the female of the species…”

“More deadly than the male,” Alex agreed soberly.

The two shared a short laugh, which was interrupted by someone knocking on the door lightly. The door opened to show Isabel Evans, smiling seductively and quirking a finger at Alex.

Alex grinned at Kyle. “And on to my doom,” he murmured, so that Isabel couldn’t hear.

Kyle laughed, rolling his eyes, but the more he thought about it, everything Alex had said to him made sense. Ava was doing all of this deliberately, either to deny herself or save herself, he didn’t know which, and it didn’t matter so much. It was exactly the sort of thing she would do. As Alex had already pointed out, it could only last so long before the act failed. And he was sure that he could think of some way to make her give in sooner rather than later.

As a plan started to form in his mind, an irrepressible grin appeared on Kyle’s face. This could be fun.

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

Alex had been building up an annoyance with Isabel since the other day when she’d dropped her sudden request on him. He’d been able to keep it underhand most of the time, but he wouldn’t have lasted much longer, as Kyle had inadvertently proved when he’d laughed at Alex for being so much at Isabel’s beck-and-call.

But the moment she’d opened the door, smiling at him in that beguiling way, her eyes gleaming like a child’s, all that frustration disappeared, every drop of the latent emotion seeming to have evaporated.

It was something in the way she smiled, eager to please, but with a covered-over nervousness, when she took his hand and led him to his room.

“Isabel, what’s going on?” he asked, unable to keep a smile from his lips, but she just shook her head at him, stopping in front of his door in Max and Liz’s apartment.

She had some kind of surprise for him, that much was clear by her demeanor, but he had no idea what. “You’re not trying to seduce me, are you?”

She giggled. “Don’t you wish,” she said. “Close your eyes.”

Alex obediently shut his eyes, and listened as she opened the door. She led him a few paces into the room before letting him open his eyes, and when he did, he felt his mouth fall open of its own accord.

There, sitting on his bed, was one of the most beautiful rosewood-and-mahogany guitars he’d ever seen in his life.

“A peace offering,” she said softly, in explanation. “I know I’ve been putting you through a lot the past couple days and…” she shrugged.

“Isabel…” Alex gasped. “I…”

“I hope it’s okay,” she interrupted, pulling at her necklace in a nervous manner he found rather cute. “I really don’t know anything about guitars, so I talked to the manager of the store, and he helped me pick it out. If… if you want we could take it back and trade it for—”

Alex surprised her by taking the initiative and pulling her close to him, kissing her deeply, and effectively cutting short her rambling. Isabel was so caught off guard that she jumped and almost pulled away, but Alex was thankfully holding her in place.

“She’s gorgeous, Isabel. Don’t you dare even think of taking her back,” he said when they came up for air. He gave her another peck and then sat down on the bed, having her sit next to him. He touched the guitar lightly, almost reverently. “She had to have cost you a fortune, though…” he started, but she shook her head resolutely.

“Don’t you even dare say you don’t deserve it or you didn’t do anything for it, Alex. You don’t need to.”

“But Isabel—”

“Just think how many Christmases and birthdays we missed, Alex. This is nothing.” She smiled. “Besides. You needed a guitar.”

He didn’t even bother arguing that point. He’d been missing his guitar ever since he’d been back.

“And you promised Zachary and Alexander guitar lessons. You can’t exactly do that without a guitar, can you?”

He rolled his eyes at her. “You’re not even giving me a chance to argue here, Iz,” he laughed.

She smiled delightedly. “And I don’t intend to.” Now that the game was over, though, the sparkle was fading from her eyes rather quickly. Unfortunately they had other things to discuss. “I made an appointment with Jesse’s secretary today…” she started, as he started fiddling with the guitar, plucking and tuning.

He looked up at her questioningly, unobtrusively. “Oh yeah?”

She nodded, biting her lip, looking like a nervous little girl once again. “I was… wondering if you would come with me.”

Alex hesitated. “Isabel… you don’t have to do that. I trust you, you know?”

She nodded. “No, I know that. I’m not doing it for you, I’m doing it for me. I think I need you there.”

“So, uh… this is a bribe, then?” he teased, gesturing towards the guitar.

Isabel, however, missed the glint in his eyes and shook her head frantically. “No, no, of course not. Alex I would never—”

He laughed, surprising her. “Don’t worry, Isabel. I know that, I was kidding.”

Isabel took a deep breath, relieved, but not unburdened. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to, of course.”

Alex watched her silently for a few moments. “Isabel, I know that you’ve got to… I don’t know, close off that section of your life or something, but—”

Isabel looked at him sharply, and comprehension dawning. “Alex, that’s not what this is about, at all.”

Alex raised a questioning eyebrow. “It’s not?”

She shook her head. “No,” she assured him, but as he continued to look at her doubtfully, she explained. “Alex, that part of my life was ‘closed off’ as you put it the moment you showed up in my bedroom and woke me up. At least on my end.”

Alex set the guitar aside and turned so he was fully facing her. “Okay…?” he said, encouraging her to expand on that.

Isabel sighed. “What I hadn’t told you… I guess I forgot, I don’t know… was that Jesse has been feeling guilty for moving on with his life. I’ve kept an eye on him over the years… dreamwalking him… and he still worries about what he would say to me if we’d ever meet. I realized the other day, that I don’t have any right to be holding that over him, especially now that you’re back in my life. And so I asked you to help me look for him. When we first came to New York I thought it was just something that would happen or not, you know? If I ran into him in the street somewhere I’d just tell him that he was off the hook…”

“But?”

Isabel shrugged. “But I did run into him in the street, almost, and instead of talking to him I made Ava hide us so that I wouldn’t have to…” she blushed, but looked at him even more determinedly. “You see, that’s why I have to do this, I have to go into it prepared… And I’d like to have you there with me.” She looked at him hopefully.

Alex contemplated her words for a few minutes. “So you’re going to say goodbye to Jesse so that he can get on with his life?” he asked, for clarification.

She nodded. “More or less. I mean, he obviously has moved on, but I need to do this… to set him free. Put him at peace.”

Alex nodded, understanding it better than he might have wanted to, even. Finally he smiled at her, even though they’d both already known he was going to give in. “So when exactly is this appointment for?”

Isabel squealed her appreciation and threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly, and he laughed, pulling his arms around her likewise. She pulled back slightly so that her forehead rested on his, and kissed him lightly. “What did I ever do to deserve you?”

He laughed. “Well, that really is a beautiful guitar…”

Zachary sighed, not quite believing Alex, but not wanting to think about it any longer. “So Aunt Izzy likes to plan things, huh?”

Alex’s eyes lit up at the topic change. “Oh, yeah. You should see her at Christmas…”

Well, Christmas Nazi comes to mind.

“Maria DeLuca wants a small wedding?” Liz scoffed in mock-disbelief. It was Saturday, the four girls had kicked the men out and taken over the Evans’ apartment in order to go over the details of the much anticipated DeLuca/Guerin nuptuals. “Okay, who are you and what have you done with my best friend?”

Maria rolled her eyes. “Laugh it up, Parker. Yes, I’ll admit that in the past I was known to dream of a rather extravagant wedding—”

“The words ‘fountains of roses’ come to mind,” Liz cut in, raising an eyebrow.

“Oh I still want fountains of roses, don’t get me wrong. It’s just that now I’d be okay if they were in some small garden rather than in a huge cathedral somewhere.” Maria sighed. “Besides… there’s no point in a huge wedding when there’s no one to come. We barely have enough people for a wedding party, much less guests.”

That was funny, but I see Maria's point.


And I was a bit worried when Isabel said she wanted to look for Jesse. And Alex was obviously not happy about it deep inside. Who could blame him? But it turned out well. :D

Alex contemplated her words for a few minutes. “So you’re going to say goodbye to Jesse so that he can get on with his life?” he asked, for clarification.

She nodded. “More or less. I mean, he obviously has moved on, but I need to do this… to set him free. Put him at peace.”

Great parts! I loved them! :D

Thanks for the feedback, Gerry! :D


Part 34

“Will that be all this morning, Mr. Ramirez? Sir?”

Jesse shook his head, as if clearing it. He focused in on the twenty-something girl behind the kiosk, who he saw almost everyday in the lobby for his morning brew. She was holding out an insulated cup and looking at him questioningly.

Jesse smiled, embarrassed. “Sorry, Julie,” he said, as he reached for the cup and handed her a five dollar bill. “It’s gonna be a long day, I can tell.”

Julie smiled her understanding as she counted out his change, handing it over to him. “Have a nice day, Mr. Ramirez.”

Jesse nodded, yawning, and made his way to the elevator. His son Jeremy had been up with an earache most of the night, and he’d wanted Hilary to get some rest, she’d been exhausted lately.

By the time he got to the thirty-second floor where his office was, the caffeine had started to kick in, but that wasn’t that that had him on alert. There was something in the air that morning. He’d been feeling it in his gut since he’d woken up, but the feeling came to a head when a man in the waiting area caught his eye.

Before he realized it, he was staring. It was a young man, thirty at the oldest, Caucasian, dark hair. The young man was flipping through a magazine nervously, and Jesse wondered what he was doing there; they specified in criminal defense, and he looked like the most illegal thing he’d done in his life was stealing hand towels from hotels. Then again, if anyone knew that looks could be deceiving, it was Jesse Ramirez.

Jesse could almost swear that he’d seen this man before, but he couldn’t connect the face to a place or time.

“Jesse, you’ve got a potential client in your office.”

The voice snapped Jesse out of his musings. “Oh yeah? Hey, thanks, Carl.”

His co-worker grinned at him. “You bet you’ll thank me… tall, blonde… it’s a shame you’re married, my friend.”

Jesse laughed, as he swung the door to his office open, “Yeah, very happily married, remember that,” he called back to Carl who was walking away. But the woman’s voice that answered him from inside the office made him freeze.

“I’m really glad to hear that.”

That voice. It was smooth like liquid amber, simultaneously gentle and firm, emotive and impassive. There was no mistaking that voice. Jesse took a breath, almost afraid to turn around, to see that she was really there, in his office.

His first wife, his first “happily ever after.” He released his breath, but didn’t turn around.

“Isabel…”

For a moment his mind ran over that short segment in his life, that part that was so much like a dream now…

It had been too good to be true, of course. His comfortable home, his trophy wife… The perfect life he’d situated for himself so quickly had turned out having more than a few holes in it, some of which proved unfixable. Not the least of which had to do with the fact that his beautiful, doting wife had another side to her—what you might call a three-foot-tall-and-green side.

He turned slightly, could see her from the corner of his eye. She was standing with her back to him, looking out of his window. It was true, she was here. “Listen, Isabel…”

She turned towards him, interrupting him. “You have a wife, you have a son. I know that, Jesse. That’s not why I’m here.”

He turned, fully facing her finally, and was amazed to see that she was smiling. Not sure of what to say, Jesse simply took in the sight of her. She was blonde now, he saw. He’d seen pictures of her that way before, but he’d never seen it in firsthand. Her features had hardly changed at all, but there was something in her demeanor… something older, more mature. Sadder, maybe, but more content.

“You look amazing, Isabel,” he said, and it was true, of course. She’d always looked amazing.

She smiled, but it wasn’t the blushing, flattered smile he remembered, it was more a friendly, gracious smile. “I’m happy, Jesse,” she acknowledged.

He heard her unspoken meaning, also. She was finally happy.

“You’re… staying in New York, then?” he asked. It was the most inane thing he possibly could have said.

“Yes. All of us… we’ve been here for a few months now.”

“Yeah?” he asked, surprised. The fact that she’d been there for that long and had only come to him now… Had she not been able to find him before? Or had she just not bothered until then? Not cared? The thought almost made him angry, but then he realized how ridiculous he was being. He was the one who had given up on her, after all.

And then the guilt from giving up on her swept over him, as it had periodically for years now. “Isabel, I’m so sorry,” he started. “I’m sorry I didn’t wait for you… I just… I didn’t know if it would ever…” he looked around the room as if searching for words there. “I needed my life, Isabel…”

His words brought tears to her eyes, which almost broke his heart. Despite the fact that he’d really barely known her when they were married, he had cared for her, and the fact that he was hurting her now was killing him. He’d hoped that this day would never come.

And then, to his surprise, Isabel was shaking her head. “No, Jesse, it’s me who should apologize.” She bit her lip for a minute, then took a deep breath. “Jesse… I know you’ve been worrying about me for a long time… ever since we left Roswell…”

“Well Isabel, of course…”

But she held a hand up, stopping him. “Please just let me… I needed to apologize to you about that. I know that you’ve felt… responsible for me in a way… you made me keep my wedding ring and promised that you’d wait for me, even though we both know that that was too much to ask of you…”

Jesse was shaking his head. “No. No, Isabel. You have to know what an amazing woman you are.”

She stopped him again. “Jesse, it’s okay. I’m not mad at you… I’m not hurt, even. Maybe I was, before, but…”

Jesse frowned. “Wait… before? What are you talking about?” And then his eyes widened in understanding. “You’ve been watching me, haven’t you?” He was surprised that he wasn’t angry at the invasion of privacy. Then again, this woman had been his wife.

Isabel did blush then, though. “I… I’ve been checking up on you over the years in your dreams… I just wanted to know you were okay,” she mumbled.

Jesse was surprised at that, and almost sad. She’d seen his dreams, but she’d never revealed herself to him… He knew that it was for safety reasons, but still, it felt as if she hadn’t trusted him enough. Not that he could blame her too much… he never exactly handled her secrets well.

“Well… I am okay,” Jesse said finally. And he was. He was more than happy with his wife Hilary, and he was a father now, which amazed him to no end.

Isabel was smiling. “I know you are. But I needed you to know that I’m okay too. You don’t have to worry about me anymore, Jesse. I know you’ve felt guilty for moving on, but you did have to get on with your life. I’m glad you did.”

The look on her face showed him that it was true, too. She was happy for him. The relief from that almost made him grin, but then he remembered himself. “And you, Isabel? You said you were happy…?”

She laughed lightly at his unasked question. “Don’t worry, Jesse, I’m being taken care of.”

Jesse nodded, and then glanced in the direction of the waiting area. “That—that man in the foyer. He’s waiting for you, isn’t he?”

The blushing, irrepressible smile that lit up Isabel’s face then was enough of an answer, but she nodded. “Yes. His name is Alex Whitman, and—”

“Alex Whitman?” Jesse couldn’t help but interrupt. “Wasn’t he… I mean…”

Isabel’s eyes widened. “Of course. You knew about Alex, didn’t you?” she asked, in an almost detached way. For Jesse, it was proof of how unreal their short time together had been for her. Of course he knew about Alex Whitman, the boyfriend who’d “died” the spring before they’d met. She’d never even spoken to him about Alex, it had been one subject she’d been completely unwilling to let him in on. One of the many, as it had turned out, of course.

“But, Isabel, I thought Alex… I mean…” he stopped himself, suddenly understanding. There were otherworldly influences at hand here. He shook his head, wearily. It was way too early in the morning for this. “Do I even want to know?”

Isabel laughed again. “Probably not… Suffice it to say that he found his way back to us.”

“Back to you, you mean.”

She smiled again, then, and there was a softness in her eyes that he’d never seen before. “Yes, he found his way back to me.”

Jesse thought back to the tall young man he’d seen furiously flipping through a magazine, hardly processing a word. Somehow, he wasn’t at all surprised that Isabel’s true love was just a normal guy. The alien princess with an average joe… it was fitting somehow.

“Do I get to meet him?”

She almost looked surprised that he was asking. “Of course. If you want to…”

Jesse laughed. “Yeah, of course…”

Isabel excused herself for a moment, and Jesse fell into his chair behind his desk, shaking his head in amazement. Here he was, sitting waiting for his ex-wife to introduce him to her previously-deceased old boyfriend. Like many of his experiences with Isabel Evans, he had to admit that this meeting was bizarre.

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

“Are you nervous?”

“Don’t be silly. Why should I be? What about you, are you nervous?”

“N-no. Of course not.”

“You’ll be fine.”

“How do I look?”

“Entirely too beautiful for my liking.”

“Excuse me?”

“What? I don’t want this guy falling for you all over again.”

“Alex, don’t be ridiculous. He’s married.”

Alex had been replaying their conversation from that morning over and over in his head as he sat waiting for Isabel. Jesse must have passed him already and Alex hadn’t seen him, because it was almost a quarter past eight and Isabel’s appointment had been for eight o’clock.

Despite her insistence that she was fine, she’d clung to his hand on the ride over, and he’d focused every ounce of his being on sending her positive, calming vibes of encouragement, pushing his own feelings to the far back of his mind. She was afraid that Jesse would be angry about the dreamwalking, that he would ask her to leave and not come back, that he hadn’t forgiven her for leaving him.

Alex knew that she’d be fine. After all, she was Isabel Evans, queen of cool. He had no such confidence concerning himself. He’d lied to her when he’d said he wasn’t nervous that morning. After all, Isabel had always been interested in older men, had been drawn to them, who was to say that she’d changed? And so Jesse was married. Did that really mean he was over Isabel? Because Alex knew that as far as he himself was concerned, nothing could ever happen that would get him over Isabel.

Even if she wanted to… say… go back to her ex-husband…

Just as the thought came to him and he was dismissing it as irrational, Isabel appeared before him. She didn’t look distracted or upset, as he might have expected, and she was most certainly smiling at him.

“Isabel?”

Without preamble or explanation Isabel took hold of his hand and pulled him to a standing position. “Come with me.”

Alex stood, but did not follow her as she was walking away from him. “Wait, Isabel.”

She stopped abruptly, and suddenly she looked guilty. For a panic-stricken moment Alex was sure that she was deciding on Jesse after all. When she spoke, though, it was clear that she was still feeling guilty for forcing his involvement in this. “He wanted to meet you. Is that okay?” she asked, almost sounding like a child.

Alex took a breath of relief then, and pulled her into a quick hug, kissing her forehead. “Of course it’s okay.”

Isabel smiled gratefully at him and led him the short distance to Jesse’s office. Jesse, a Hispanic man in his mid-to-late thirties was waiting for them, a somewhat bewildered look on his face. Alex couldn’t blame him, he’d had quite a bomb dropped on him just now.

Taking the initiative, Alex stepped forward, holding his hand out to the other man. “Hi, Alex Whitman,” he said, with a little more confidence than he felt.

“So I’ve heard,” Jesse smiled. “Jesse Ramirez, nice to meet the man I was stepping in for.”

Alex raised an eyebrow at Isabel, who just smiled at him and took his hand, pulling it around her waist. Jesse eyed the movement with a spark of something not-quite jealous in his eyes. “You’re an incredibly lucky man, Alex.”

The look made Alex pull Isabel closer against his side, and he smiled. “That’s an understatement.” He considered thanking Jesse for taking care of Isabel when he’d been gone, but decided against it. It would only end up sounding trite if he tried it, and he didn’t really believe that Jesse had “taken care of” Isabel, not really.

And suddenly Alex understood what Isabel had been trying to tell him from the beginning. As much as she might have cared for this man at the time, in the scheme of things, Jesse Ramirez had been a means to an end. Not that Isabel would articulate it that way, but it was true, as far as Alex was concerned. She had needed somebody to turn to that summer, and Jesse had been it. The fact that they had ended up married… it was practically a fluke.

So as Jesse went on asking Isabel about the group, catching up and making sure that everybody was okay, Alex felt his reservations towards the older man fade away. Jesse had known Isabel for a grand total of eleven months more than ten years ago. When you put it that way, Jesse Ramirez didn’t seem like much of a threat at all.

Before Alex knew it, Jesse was giving them a tour of the pictures set around his office, with Isabel ooh and ahh-ing more over every picture of his son Jeremy that they saw, who, Alex had to admit, had the most curly black hair he’d ever seen on an infant, ever.

And his wife was a knockout. Nothing compared to Isabel, of course, but that was one more thing to convince Alex that he had nothing to worry about. Jesse was obviously very much in love with his wife and son.

Isabel told Jesse that Michael and Maria were finally getting married, which Jesse laughed outright at, earning that much more of Alex’s respect.

“You’ll come, won’t you?”

Jesse looked hesitant. “Well… yeah… if that’s okay… I mean…”

Isabel nodded. “You should. I’m sure everyone would love to see you, and I’d love to meet Hilary and Jeremy…”

Isabel was interrupted by a buzzing sound. “Mr. Ramirez? You’re nine o’clock is here.”

Jesse looked startled, as if he’d forgotten he was even at work. He pressed a button on his phone. “Thanks, Wendy, I’ll be with them in a minute.” He sent Isabel an apologetic look. “Sorry, Isabel. I’m afraid I’ve got to kick you out.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it,” Isabel said, picking up her purse and moving towards the door, with Alex following suit. “And Jesse, I’m sorry we just dropped in on you like this…”

“Oh, no, no. Don’t worry about it. I’m glad you did.”

Isabel smiled. “Yeah, I’m glad we did too.” She gave him a quick hug as she and Alex moved towards the door.

“It was nice meeting you, Alex.”

“Yeah, you too,” Alex nodded, and Jesse shook his hand again.

He escorted them out to the elevator, but just Isabel was about to push the down button, Jesse stopped her hand.

“Isabel… you know… I don’t know that we’ll be able to go the wedding…” he said quietly, apologetically.

Isabel looked sad, but not surprised. She nodded. “I know, Jesse,” she said, reaching out to squeeze his hand in understanding. This day had been an ending, for both of them. There were some things you just needed to leave in the past.

“Hey,” Jesse said, addressing Alex then, who looked at him questioningly. “Take care of her.”

Alex nodded solemnly. “That’s a promise.”

When the elevator doors closed behind them, Isabel threw her arms around Alex’s neck and buried her face in his chest. This last burden of hers had finally been lifted, and it had left her all but shaking with relief. He held her all thirty-two floors down.

Part 35

“So… do you want me to hail a cab?”

Isabel looked up almost startled. Despite the fact that she’d been holding tightly to his hand, Alex got the feeling that she’d almost forgotten that he was there.

They’d been wandering aimlessly a bit after leaving Jesse, but neither of them had spoken a word since the meeting ended. Isabel had been trying to wrap her mind around the fact that everything with Jesse was really over… While there was sadness in saying goodbye to him, she felt like something inside of her had broken loose of its chains, and she was finally free. It was exhilarating.

Alex had been waiting patiently for some kind of sign that she was ready to talk, and one look at him showed her how worried he was at her silence. His simple concern was enough to overwhelm her at the moment. The way Alex cared about her… took care of her… Would she ever be able to show him how much she loved him?

Quietly she pulled his arm around her waist, snuggling into his side. “Is it okay if we just walk for a bit?” she asked softly.

In response, he pulled her in closer to himself and kissed her on the forehead. It was the second time he’d done that this morning, and it reminded her of… something. She couldn’t quite place it. It was like a dream that she’d barely forgotten…

The thought vanished from her mind, though, as she caught sight of a huge building of granite and stained glass, bringing Isabel, and consequently Alex, to a halt.

Alex looked at her, worried. “Uh, Iz? What’s wrong?” he glanced at the large gothic church she was staring at. “Isabel?”

“What is this place?”

Alex’s eyebrows raised. “A church?” he offered, suddenly not sure about what was going on.

As he watched, Isabel’s entire persona changed. She pulled away from him, and all of a sudden she was looking for an address, she was pulling something from her purse… “Isabel, what is that?” he asked, nodding towards the piece of paper in her hand.

“This church isn’t on my list, Alex. I spent two hours online preparing this list and this church is nowhere on it. I can’t have just missed it.”

And as quickly as that, the light clicked on. Call him crazy, but he couldn’t wait until Christmas… Isabel in planning mode was a sight to be seen.

“Isabel, I thought that Maria settled on the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. She wanted… what? Roses, right?”

Isabel waved a hand at him, shushing him. “Not the point, Alex.”

“Um… okay… What is the point, then?”

She made a grab for his hand and headed towards the steps. “We’ve got to go inside.”

But Alex stopped her. “No, no, Isabel… what if they’re in the middle of a service or something?”

She shrugged. “So what? I just have to see something.”

Alex tugged on her hand. “Come on, let’s go get a bagel or something. We’ll sit, we’ll talk… we’ll come back and check out the church later, okay? I’ll pay.”

Isabel smiled and rolled her eyes. “Alex, you don’t have any money.”

He grinned. “You didn’t let me finish, I was going to say I’ll pay you back later. And I do too have money, Liz lent me some.”

Isabel shook her head at him, smiling, but she took a deep breath and fastened her eyes on his, as if pleading him to take her seriously. “Alex, I promise you that after this we can go and we can get a bagel and sit and talk and do whatever you want, but I need to see the inside of this building.”

Alex stared at her for a moment before giving in. What damage could it do? “Fine,” he said, as he followed her in. “But no taking pictures, no making diagrams and absolutely no measuring the width of the aisle. Maria’s all set on the Botanical Garden and nothing you see inside of that building will change her mind.”

Isabel barely heard him as she rushed ahead of him. Something was pulling her on, and as she pushed the wooden doors open, she started to get a feeling as to what that something was.

Isabel had read of things like this before… where you saw a place in a dream before actually seeing it in person. Sometimes it was a result of having subconsciously seen the place on TV or in a magazine… Still, whatever the logical explanation of it was, she was no less than amazed at what she saw inside the church.

“Alex…” she made a blind grab for his hand, as she couldn’t tear her eyes away from the sight before her. She hadn’t taken time to really look at the place before, dreams did that to you… but now that she was really here, it was beautiful.

She finally glanced over at Alex and gave him an irrepressible smile when he caught hold of her wandering hand. “Alex, this is the place.”

Alex’s brow furrowed. “What?”

“This is it, Alex, this is where the wedding takes place.”

Alex rolled his eyes. Okay, so maybe he wasn’t looking forward to Christmas quite so much. Taking a hold of Isabel’s shoulders, he gave her the same look he’d seen Max giving Alexander when he’d asked for Pizza for breakfast. “No, Isabel, I told you. Michael and Maria are getting married in the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, end of story.”

Isabel pulled back slightly, looking at him like he was crazy. “Who said anything about Michael and Maria?”

Alex blinked, and then he frowned. “Uh… who are you talking about, then?”

Isabel laughed at him then. “Well, who do you think I’m talking about?”

Alex glanced sideways before looking back at her. “I have no idea?”

“Alex, remember those dreams I told you about? Where I’d talk to you, only you weren’t really there?”

Alex took a moment to decide how he would respond, but he didn’t even get a chance.

“This was one of them, Alex. Right here… This is where we get married.”

Alex took an involuntary step back. “Wh…what?”

Isabel frowned. “Don’t you like the chapel?”

“Well, yeah…”

She smiled, satisfied. “See? I knew you would. You showed it to me, after all. Well, he did,” she amended.

Alex shook his head… it may have only been ten AM, but it had been a long day, and he was sure he was hearing things wrong. “What? Isabel what are you talking about?”

“Haven’t you been listening?” Isabel gestured around the empty chapel. “Alex, this is it. This is where we get married.”

Alex followed her eyes around the room. “But… but we’re not married. We’re not getting married,” he said, stumbling over the words though he said them slowly.

“Of course we are.”

Alex raised an eyebrow. “We are?”

“Well, don’t you want to marry me?”

“Well…”

Isabel looked at him sharply. “You don’t want to marry me?”

“No! I didn’t say that… I definitely didn’t say that,” Alex said quickly, stepping towards her again.

“You do want to marry me, then?”

“Isabel, what’s brought this on? What are you talking about?”

Isabel took a step towards him, looking at him intently. “It’s very simple, Alex. Do you want to marry me?”

Alex laughed slightly. “Are you proposing to me?”

Isabel looked around the church one more time, “Yes. I mean, why not? I mean, I love you… and you love me, right? So, yes… I’m proposing. Will you marry me, Alex? Here?”

The last of Alex’s laugh died, as he realized that she was serious. She was really asking him to marry her. “Isabel… don’t you think this is rushing things a little? I mean, with all that’s happened recently…”

Isabel smiled then, more softly than before. “Alex, I’ve been in love with you almost half my life… do you really think that’s rushing things?”

Alex swallowed. Of course when she said it that way… “Don’t you think you need some time? I mean, Jesse…”

She covered his lips with two fingers and touched his arm with her free hand. After everything, he was still having trouble understanding. “Jesse is over. And we… we need to begin. I mean… don’t you think we’re a little overdue?”

Alex raised an eyebrow, still not quite sure if he could believe this was happening to him… Isabel Evans was asking him to marry her.

“I’m not saying we have to get married right away or anything… but someday. Preferably sooner rather than later…” Isabel took a deep breath, then, preparing for a leap of faith. “Alex Whitman, will you marry me?”

The grin that started across his face was probably answer enough, but he nodded, laughing at the sheer enormity of the situation. “Yes, uh… yes ma’am, I will.”