The Offer (CC ALL, YTEEN) Ch. 41 - 5 / 21 COMPLETE

[Misha]

Thanks for coming back to read!!

So, it's Sunday!! Special thanks go to Michelle in Yonkers for her beta services, and to KathyW for her endless patient with this story as well

Next part has 3/4 already betaed, so it really should come soon

On to feedback!

ken_r, Maria is a fun character to develop, that's for sure. She has the most practical view of the group, probably along with Kyle. Though writing her interacting with Dave -who is also a practical person most of the time- was hard, it was worth to see where it would lead

Michelle in Yonkers, Dave is a tricky character, I guess. Had he stumbled onto the Skins, for instance, how things would have gone? What would Nicholas tell this very resourceful man about the dangers of these hybrids? In his position, Dave knows he holds too much power, and does not like to act only knowing one half of the story. He could be betting for the wrong side. So he saw this whole spying thing as a necessary step, because he already knew he was getting into something big, that turned out to be huge.

Granted, we don't know what he's going to earn in the long term, but we also don't know what's he's going to lose that made him do everything he did.

xmag, Dave's past has a lot to do with... well, Dave's present, and why he does what he does. We know bits and pieces of Dave's past that goes hand in hand with Jake's past, but keep in mind there was still a time before they knew each other that could play an important role in Dave's character as well.

tequathisy, I think Maria was in full battle mode from the moment she realized she was half an hour late, so she took that defensive posture from the start. Had she been on time and with a full stomach, maybe things would have gone a lot calmer... But then again, she was so fired up by the time she had stopped telling Dave what Max had told her... who knows...

thetvgeneral, ::waves:: Don't worry girl, RL comes first, but once you're back, I'll have a couple of things for your beta skills

Timelord31, I *wish* all that was left was the party and Max's interview... it would make my life soooooo easy... Friday is a pretty long day... and we are barely getting to 1 pm...

nibbles, Isabel dreamwalking Dave while Max is at his interview is an interesting possibility... hhhmmm... but there's still a lot to go down before Saturday's dawn arrives

starcrazed, the funny thing is, I've never seen Maria as anything but as a strong character, at least since she started to date Michael. Because no one with a weak character would stand him -not do I see him caring for someone that is not as... eerrrr... strong headed as himself- so this Maria for me is just the way I've always perceived her, especially since she was sucked into the alien abyss

Let us hope Danielle's cuisine is of Maria's taste... or Michael is going to have a heart attack! hihihihi

garcia88, welcome to the story!! So, why did you start reading? Any fav parts so far?? Tell me everything!


Thank you all for your patience and sticking to the story despite the long delays Here's the next part of chapter 33.


XXXIII
Heartbeat
cont.


Beep… Beep… Beeeeeeep.

Max kept staring at the microwave long after it had loudly announced that the time was up and he could take the contents out. The beeping had distracted him, bringing half-made memories of an event he couldn’t truly recall. It had sounded like a heartbeat. It had sounded as if a heart was actually stopping, with all the dramatic sound effects that movies used to accompany such scenes. Had his heart sounded like that when it had stopped at Pierce’s hands?

How fragile it seemed now. A heartbeat.

“Max?”

Liz’s voice coming from the other room startled him out of his reverie, making him jump a bit; the lamp over his head brightening for a moment, then flickering for a couple of seconds. He looked up, glaring at it.

“Are you all right?”

This time his wife came through the kitchen door with a bowl in hand. She had been finishing the last touches to the decoration along with Isabel and Kyle in the living room. He was supposed to bring in the melted cheese so they could mix it with nachos.

“Yeah, yeah… I was just… waiting for it…” he absently pointed out behind him with his left hand, in the general direction of the microwave. Though the three of them could melt it by just passing their hands over it, it actually tasted better heating it in a conventional way.

“You were sort of… spacing out for a minute there,” Liz said, smiling a little as if afraid he wouldn’t take that in a good way. She was feeling a whole lot more from his side of the connection since he had woken up in Jake’s lab early that day.

Max shrugged, a bit uncomfortable. “It was just… Jake said…” he looked at his hands, at his feet, at the counter, anywhere but Liz’s eyes. He didn’t want her to know what he had talked about with Jake. Besides, death was not exactly a subject he wanted to bring up when everyone was trying to be festive and cheerful.

Finally, he turned to look at the microwave, his own heartbeat strangely loud in his own ears. “He said something that didn’t make sense,” he told her before she had any time to press.

She sat down in one of the seats around the small kitchen table, expectant and a bit fearful. He leaned on the counter beside the microwave, working up the courage to look her in the eye.

“He said that my heart stopped for 28 seconds… when I was in that white… that white room,” he swallowed a bit forcefully, Liz’s eyes widening a bit. “But how could that be? Michael didn’t get the Seal. And I… I don’t even remember it.”

No, he had a very vivid memory of his death when he had tried to heal Clayton Wheeler, but there was no darkness, no void, when he thought about Pierce. There was a myriad of nightmarish feelings, for sure, but none of them was a perfect match.

“Max…” Liz said, forgetting the bowl on the table as she went to him, knowing full well that this had a lot more to do with Max’s fears than the puzzle the Seal presented. As she embraced him, a loud electrical touch made them both wince, though neither let go.

“We really have to stop doing that,” Max teasingly said, trying to lighten the mood. Honestly, he had been having electrical shocks with everyone and almost everything metal since leaving Jake’s lab. It was starting to be annoying.

“Are you really okay?” Liz’s whispered worry was hardly heard. She was hugging him, her head on his chest.

They had left Jake’s office more than forty five minutes ago, calling Ray and arriving at the hut with Liz’s shopping and Maria’s gift fifteen minutes later. They both had agreed that they wouldn’t tell anyone about Jake’s talk until later that day. Maria’s birthday party came first. Besides, Michael would kill them otherwise.

“I’m really fine,” Max said soothingly, his eyes drifting to the lamp for a second, his arms protectively around her small body. Truth be told, he felt weird. Not a bad kind of weird exactly, but weird all the same. He had never made a light bulb flicker before just by being startled. He had never noticed before so many details as he was doing now. It was as if he were… overcharged, and over-alert, bustling with electricity and seeing connections he hadn’t seen before.

Suddenly, things were… clearer.

“You know, Max, just because your heart stopped, it doesn’t mean that your brain stopped, too,” Liz’s clear voice came through, getting him back to the topic at hand. “You know, you weren’t really dead. The Seal had no reason to go.”

How did this Seal work, anyway? It hadn’t gone to Tess, who should have been the direct heiress to the throne… or Isabel, who would have a blood-tie claim to the crown, at least by human standards… No, it had gone to Michael, but by doing so, it had distorted Michael’s own personality. If the Seal would determine their characters, why hadn’t Max’s changed when he had lost it? Clearer or not, his mind couldn’t really come up with a reasonable explanation to the puzzle at hand.

“Do you know why you… fell asleep?”

“I was… tired,” Max answered, shrugging a little bit, not really knowing what to say. He had barely gotten any sleep the whole week, and he had gone through a roller coaster of memories and emotions back in Jake’s lab, but… This had been an unusual sleep.

Only once had he truly felt such tiredness that he had fallen asleep into a black dreamless state almost immediately: The day he had healed those children in Phoenix. Michael had told him in a rather curt way, to never scare him like that again. Max had felt guilty enough never to try that stunt a second time. Liz had later told him that he couldn’t keep doing it because maybe he was messing with a grand scheme of things, but Max already knew he couldn’t keep messing with Michael’s, Isabel’s and Tess’ lives. It just wasn’t fair, and the desire to go back and heal even just one more child had faded away.

He couldn’t recall much about that night. He had a vague memory of Michael urging him to go through a window and landing hard on the ground. Sounds of heavy footsteps running at his side echoed in his mind, and Michael’s voice, calling his name and saying things Max hadn’t been able to focus on. The last thing he remembered was Michael helping him into the back seat, worriedly asking him if he was all right.

Then it was all black. The next thing he knew was Isabel opening the door, the chill of the night biting at his skin. He had been so cold… He had crashed in his bed barely registering Isabel’s questions and Michael’s answers. It had been late, probably close to 4 a.m. In four more hours Isabel would wake him up and asked him if he was feeling well enough to make an appearance at breakfast.

He had felt better, but certainly drained. His powers were gone, but that fact was of no consequence while he and Isabel watched the news, silently worrying about who would truly understand what a silver handprint meant. It would be more than 12 hours before he felt close to normal, and just a fraction of his powers were back. Two days before he got them all back, and two days more before he could use them at full potential.

So, no… that sleep and the one he had experienced barely two hours ago had nothing in common. He had come out of this sleep with so much energy, and he wasn’t able to fully control it. But it felt… good. He felt so rested…

His eyes turned to the door above Liz’s head, suddenly aware of Isabel’s presence getting near. As if on cue, she entered the kitchen, a smile still on her face about some joke Kyle must have made.

Their eyes met, and Isabel automatically knew something was… amiss. Her smile vanished. Liz disentangled herself from Max, her back still to Isabel’s, and Max’s eyes widened a little, as if in warning to Isabel. Don’t ask anything right now, they said, and Isabel’s smile was back in an instant, right in time to meet Liz’s eyes.

“Michael’s coming,” she said, “so we better hurry.”

Max felt Liz’s heart beating faster as excitement flowed through their connection. Maria was coming, and Liz’s anticipation at what Maria would think spiked through. He really, truly hoped that Michael’s surprise would go as planned. Liz moved to the microwave without wasting any more time.

“I’ve got the cheese, you bring more glasses,” she said hurriedly as she disappeared into the living room.

“Is something wrong?” Isabel almost whispered, her smile forgotten once more.

“No, no… nothing… We had a talk with Jake, but nothing that can’t wait for later,” Max said as he turned around to fetch the glasses.

“Max, did something happen?” Isabel asked, this time moving beside him to help him get all the glasses. “Around 10 o’clock?”

Max froze in place, and then turned to look at her. “Did you feel it?”

“I felt something, something that had to do with you… Like… I don’t know… as if for an instant you just hadn’t been there.” Isabel frowned at her own words, not being able to put together what she had felt. “That was it, wasn’t it? Whatever happened, had to do with that,” Isabel said as she saw recognition in her brother’s eyes.

“We’ll talk about it, Iz, I promise.”

A car parking outside made both siblings look at the window at the same time. “But if we’re not out there, Michael’s gonna kill us,” Max said, half jokingly, half seriously, although Isabel didn’t move to leave. “It’s nothing bad,” he assured her, and oddly enough he thought of his mother, sitting on a park bench while he was telling her the exact same words, “it’s nothing dangerous. We’re fine.”

She reluctantly let it go, and took the lead out into the living room with three glasses, leaving him with another set of three. Isabel had felt it, whatever “it” was, and that scared Max a little. Liz had said that their connection had been low the past days and he hadn’t even noticed. What if something more was happening?

As he hurriedly settled the glasses on the table, Liz all but ran to stand behind the door and greet her best friend in the world. He smiled. This whole thing was meant not only to make Maria happy, but to give them all a few hours to try to relax. Because later… Later there was a lot to talk about.

The light above him flickered for an instant, and Max frowned. Was he really that out of control? As he was staring at the lamp on the ceiling, the lamps on the living room flickered too. But he barely had time to register that, as the logs in the chimney spontaneously combusted. As he turned around to look at them –thinking he was really losing it- he realized it had been his sister lighting a fire, making the room atmosphere cozy.

And suddenly he felt Michael. Just as clearly as he had known Isabel was going to come into the kitchen five minutes earlier, Max was dead certain that Michael was just behind that door, and man, was he charged. He was the reason the lamps had flickered, Max unexpectedly concluded, though he had no hope that the incident with the kitchen lamp had been anyone else but himself.

They heard Maria’s giggles coming from outside, and that made Michael’s energy skyrocket. Michael was nervous, Max knew, but before that door finally opened, Max wondered what Michael had been doing all morning long that would warrant such bottled up force.

By the side-glance that Isabel gave Max, he was fairly sure his sister was feeling something as well.

What the heck have you been doing, Michael? Max thought for a second, and for a moment, he had a very vivid image of two facts: One, the compound was intact after Maria’s interview. And two, now Michael was free to let all his tension go… and that might prove devastating for the lonely hut.


* * *

[Misha]

Hey guys! Thanks for coming back to read!

(This part has been edited for a few grammar and spelling mistakes)

A bit late, but this is Michael we're talking about, so... Anyway, this is the final part of chapter 33! I can officially announce that I will need more than 2 more chapters to finish this book. Probably 5, but we'll see. All the same, we're getting closer to the end.

Special thanks go again to Michelle in Yonkers for betaing this part so fast! THANK YOU GIRL!


ken_r, ggaahhhh I love what you said! About the electrical touches and how people decide that the pain is worth it! The pod squad is certainly reaching new levels of awareness. After all, their powers were always supposed to be growing

Michelle in Yonkers, that seal business has kept me awake many nights... It's tricky to deal with it, since it would seem there's hardly any logic behind it. Who and what Tess and Michael were before is an interesting question, as well as what exactly "Royalty" would mean to Antarians.

Natalie36, thanks for the comment!! Mr. David is certainly on the sneaky side right now... it makes you wonder what's been going on in his head for the past two years...

cjsl8ne, Max is indeed experiencing a little bit of overcharging right now I *have* written pieces of his interview already -especially the opening- so I hope you guys will enjoy reading it as much I am enjoying writing it!

Timelord31, I have heard that Seal theory before, and it is a very intriguing one. It only leaves unexplained why Michael changed so much... hhmmm...

xmag, a bunch of machos, uh? heh I know it's commonly believed Zan arranged Vilandra's marriage to Rath, but do we really have solid proof of that? Maybe I should go re-watch some episodes Remember when Tess had said she would've felt it if Max had died? I'm sort of playing with that idea now. So yes, both Isabel and Michael are also more aware of things, but Max in particular. He just has had an incredibly stressful week, since he feels responsible for the outcome in the end. Max's responsibility sense is going to be his own ending, I swear...

Now, has something awakened in him?!? that's creepy!!! hhhmmm....

tequathisy, "cake making is stressful" HAHAHAHAHAHAHA That totally cracked me up! I hate cooking, so I can relate

nibbles2, I think Isabel meant that the "sense" of Max wasn't there. That she couldn't feel him anymore. In a very small scale, just like Liz knew Max was dead. He just wasn't there. That's why Liz took it so badly when she suddenly didn't feel him.

thetvgeneral, :: miss ya' girl!! And yes, one thing this fic is about is what's going on through their heads


So, here's the next part!

* * *

XXXIII
Hearbeat
cont.


Many things were happening today. Many indeed.

Michael's heartbeat was going over 100 miles per hour, and he didn't like that one bit. He had been sitting on that couch for an eternity, feeling his nervous, green, electric energy go from one hand to the other as he sat facing Dave's office, his back to the door through which they had first entered this man's domain.

He would have sworn he had been there for more than two hours, even if his watch was telling him it had been less than twenty minutes. His foot was impatiently tapping as he waited for Maria to get out of that damned office and take her to the "party", or whatever it would end up being.

He had wanted to deliver the food to the hut, especially since he was curious to see if the place would meet his expectations, but thought better of it as he recalled Isabel was already there. He would bet all the food that was in the car that Kyle must be going nuts by now. Isabel wasn't just a Christmas Nazi, she was a Decorating/Party/Organizer Nazi.

He shuddered at the sudden thought that, if Vilandra had been anything like Isabel, what would a princess do with such power?

With so much time to kill, Michael's thoughts were driving him crazy. If he was going to be honest with himself, he was also uneasy about Max. He had felt something odd early in the morning, but he had been so concerned about Maria that he had brushed it off. Now he wasn't so sure if he should have done that, and the idea both scared him and made him feel like he was paranoid. This place was starting to get to him, and the fact that Maria was barely 20 feet from him and still unreachable was doing nothing to make him feel comfortable.

He glanced at his watch: Two minutes after last time.

He groaned inwardly, his tapping the only movement in that place, his slow outflow of breath the only sound keeping him company. He hated waiting. The worst part was knowing something was happening right under his nose and he couldn't figure out what.

When he had been ready to take Danielle's precious knives and melt them into the next pot that crossed his eyes around 10:30 a.m., the two Network Keepers he had met earlier had passed by with an almost haunted look in their eyes. And they had been whispering about Dave. He had had half a mind to simply ask them what was up or follow them, but right on cue the timer rang, reminding him his cake was ready… and the rest of the food wasn't.

He had made a mental note of scouting the Geeks' Quarters at the next available opportunity, which would probably be tomorrow morning, when Max was going to be up here.

Max.

Michael's mind tried to return to whatever he had felt from his Fearless Leader that morning, and came up empty. Michael humorlessly chuckled. He guessed it had been an empty feeling. He shook the highly uncomfortably thought off.

Sometimes Michael thought he would follow Max till the end of time just because Max was way too naïve and too good for his own good; sometimes Michael just wanted to strangle him for his stubbornness and passive decisions. But one thing was sure: Wherever they'd end up and whoever they'd become, as long as they stuck together, they'd make it.

He just hoped this whole thing with Dave had been the right choice.

Tactically speaking, Michael could see where Max was coming from, but that didn't mean that a) Max hadn't made a mistake, and b) that there were too many variables still unknown to them for Michael to be comfortable in the least. They had given up freedom for security. Hadn't someone already said something about that? "Those who would trade freedom for security deserve neither"?

Michael's right foot stopped tapping. His left foot took its place.

It wasn't exactly a pleasant thought. He could turn it around and think that they had exchanged knowledge for a chance. Jake would sooner or later get down to business, and that would give them time to learn how to defend themselves, a better chance at life and how to defend their freedom.

They would have been caught. No matter how philosophical he could get, or how many quotes were swarming in his mind, there was no doubt in Michael's head they would have been caught once Liz's power had run dry. Part of him still argued at night that they'd had a better chance on the road, but Michael kept going back to those hours in that blue room, to the emptiness of not knowing what was going on with Maria and the rest of the group.

Michael had come to terms a long time ago, in that summer from hell after Nasedo had infiltrated the Special Unit, that maybe someday either Max or Isabel or himself were going to get caught again, and that a white, bare, sterile room would be the only thing in their future. He didn't like to acknowledge that possibility, but had accepted that it was there.

But what he couldn't – wouldn't - even consider was that Maria would face that same destiny. It was one thing to be born into the whole mess, and completely another to be sucked into it. At least Liz and Kyle had an "excuse" to be around, since they had been changed. But Maria? Maria could turn around in the next town, disappear on her own, and get a normal guy, a white picket fence, and a bunch of kids who wouldn't explode things with their minds.

She still could have a normal life.

And a normal birthday.

He would have asked her already if she wanted to marry him if only that tiny little voice at the very back of his mind didn't whisper from time to time that Maria still had a chance out. She had never pushed it, and it probably had a lot to do with the fact that she was turning 19, and it had never been her goal in life to be married so young. He knew, beyond a doubt, that even if he proposed the minute she stepped out of that office, she would laugh it off, and then seriously considering it, would tell him no. She was not ready. Probably he wasn't either.

The funny thing was, they pretty much already lived like a married couple. He looked down at his own gray metal ring and wondered what it would look like in thin gold. Sometimes, he had caught sight of Max staring at his own wedding band. Sometimes Max had smiled, others had looked thoughtful.

What a mess they were in.

That thought had little to do with Dave and the whole deal. It had to do with Max, Isabel and himself trying to live a human life, while their alien side dictated what they should do first. And second. And last. They had sucked three unsuspecting lives into an abyss that was out of anybody's control, not counting that Alex and Tess were already dead.

It wasn't a game. It never had been. While Max and Isabel had loved their make-believe life, Michael had always known the dangers that their lives entailed. In a way, in a very ironic way, he'd always been their guardian. The one who knew the dangers, and sought them and fought them. The general who worked under his commander's orders to keep their happy lives in place.

He was doing a lousy job, if that was the case.

He was doing a lousy job at keeping everyone safe, at keeping Maria happy, and he was more than certain that he was doing an incredibly lousy job of making this birthday a good one. Not a normal one, he wasn't aiming that high, just a good one. And he was still sucking at it.

Maybe it was in his genes, or in his stars, or in his luck. Maybe he was doomed to never get it right. How long ago had he seen Maria smile? That soul-warming smile she had had in those early days, when knowing he was an alien had been an exciting adventure? When breaking into an apartment had been like "Mulder and Scully"?

If he could only bring back that smile again… Had he messed up things so badly in her life that even hoping for a smile had gotten so complicated?

Michael rubbed his face with a tired hand. A low sound snapped his eyes open, and he silently watched Maria coming out of the office, all stoic face and straight walk, not giving a glance back, just to close it behind her and then… then it was all gone, and Michael got to see the vulnerable side of his lovely Maria.

Not a crying-I'm-falling-apart side, no, Maria would rarely –if ever- show that side. She looked as if she had been through a war zone and only now was letting the events catch up with her. It was the tired look one got once a very stressful event had just finished, only to know that the battle had been won but not the war.

It was the same tired look Michael had worn when he had –finally!- exited Danielle's kitchen half an hour ago.

He got up and went to her with all the intention of hugging her. Of telling her how sorry he was her birthday had to be a crappy one, and most of all, just to show her how much he loved her.

But Maria's face was shocked at first, and annoyed a second after, as he had unintentionally startled her.

"Michael? What are you doing here?"

He halted. Frowned. And just opened his arms in a gesture that could be interpreted in a thousand different ways. Whatever Maria's mood was, he was not going to make the mistake of thinking he could read her like a book. He would let Maria decide what his gesture meant, and then take it from there.

She went to him, and just when he thought she was going to hug him, she punched him in the shoulder.

"I could've found my way back, you know. I don't need a bodyguard, for crying out loud. How many times have I told you I'm no damsel in distress? And—"

Michael tuned her down. He almost rubbed his face once more, in an attempt to understand how best to proceed here, but refrained from doing so since he knew Maria hated it when she thought he wasn't paying attention.

"I got you a present," Michael finally interrupted her in mid-sentence, just as she was about to walk towards the elevator that would take them down to the underground complex. He could not blow his only chance of getting her out of that place, at least for one afternoon.

She turned around with narrowed eyes. Then a small, tentative smile widened on her face. "You did?"

How innocent she could look in an instant. She all but batted her eyes at him. Michael's heartbeat doubled at the thought that his present was not going to be enough. A thought that had nothing to do with the party preparation at the hut, and all to do with the small bundle in his pocket.

"I did," he smiled back, swallowing his doubts. He opened his arms again, though this time signaling the door.

Maria froze, her smile faltering.

"What— what do you mean? Outside?"

Don't worry, we've got permission, Michael's cynical voice said out loud in his head, and he bit his tongue before he could say it out loud for real. Now was not the moment to get into a rant about what he thought about this whole situation and the fact they couldn't even go outside without worrying sick.

"It's part of the surprise," he said, pasting on a smile he hoped would convince her he was serious.

"Oh, hell no. I haven't spent two hours talking to that man, positively famishing while securing our financial future to get it all wasted on—"

She was bound to keep babbling if he let her, he knew. Countless hours of experience had shaped his sense of Maria's Rant Mode. Inside Dave's office, Dave paused his typing for a moment as the lamp flickered for a couple of seconds.

"Maria," Michael said with a rather tired look, his nerves being really close to just snapping after an entire morning of being restrained. If he so much as heard one more word in French… "Just trust me."

Maria stopped in mid-sentence, a bit surprised. Maybe it was the way he had said it, maybe it was the way he was just signaling the door, maybe it was something entirely absurd and unknown to him, but Michael didn't care why Maria actually shut her mouth and, after a glance back to Dave's office, she finally moved.

He inwardly sighed. It would take him ten minutes of arguing in the car that she could NOT eat what was in the containers until they reach their destination, after which she said either she'd eat something from there, or she would just get out of the car and go to the Cafeteria. Alone.

He gave her bread. She glared at him. The entire road to the promised hut was spent with Maria arguing that prisoners at least got water to go with the cold bread. He had not spent an entire morning cooking and suffering that damned French cook for Maria to just grab a bite here and there without seeing the entire picture first. Just… no.

But by the time they reached the place, they both looked at it with contemplative eyes. It really didn't look like much. In fact, the place looked like it hadn't been used in a while. All of Michael's fears about messing this day up came rushing back to him, his heartbeat doubling in his ears. What if Maria hated the place? What if the food wasn't good enough? What if he had forgotten the eggs in that stupid cake? What if—

Maria giggled.

And then giggled some more.

And in that moment, when their eyes met and she smiled at him, one of those bright, sunny smiles of hers, everything just melted away: The hut, the snow, the party, the complex, the deal. Everything. He didn't care why she had smiled, just that she had, because it meant things could still go all right. Because she could still find something to laugh at while being with him.

Because it meant that, after all, he was doing something right.


* * *

AN: The quote "those who would trade freedom for security deserve neither" is by Benjamin Franklin.

[Misha]

Please, a stand up ovation for all the betas in the world, who sacrifice time, neurons and effort on reading for us, writers, and make sense of our chaos... As usual, thanks to KathyW and Michelle in Yonkers for their invaluable work. (All writers should beta some time, just to see how hard it really is )

There is quite some feedback to answer, but I did promise this part for last weekend, so I'll be back with those answers later Thanks for coming back to read!! As usual these days, this is the first part of the chapter


XXXIV
Gifted


Things never were what they seemed, especially with Dave.

Jake didn’t have to be told twice to know that. No, the 43 year-old man who was sipping his hot chocolate as he stared at his closest friend in the world, and the greatest enigma there had ever been, knew better. After being friends for almost 32 years now, watching Dave working so absorbed in front of the computer brought old memories to the good doctor. Memories he hadn’t visited in a long time, mostly because they were memories of a past he wished he could just bury and never look back.

The ironic thing was that, because he so conveniently chose to ignore these past facts, he would sometimes miss signs from the present. Dave had always been… tenacious, in a way. Once his mind was set on something, it would seem he could get the Universe to conspire with him to get it. And sometimes, it scared Dave himself.

He had told him so once, when they were still young, as young as the kids they had so gracefully trapped. I’ll do anything for the right reasons, Jake, Dave had said looking out at the sea, his eyes so far away in some inner world where Jake would never reach him, except when Dave chose to share it with him. Anything. But what happens if the right reasons are not really right? What do I do then?

Nineteen years later, Jake knew that dark inner doubt was very much alive in Dave’s soul. What happened if he set his mind to something, just to realize he had been wrong? And now the stakes were much higher than ever before, because now Dave could do almost anything he really wanted to. He had the mind to do it, the resources, the contacts, and God help them all, he also had the will.

Lately, the right reasons were orbiting around six teens, and though Jake didn’t really know why exactly, he should have known since the beginning that Dave really considered he was doing something right. It was all there: The carefulness with which he had thought the whole thing through; the long period while he’d watched and made sure of every move; and even now, the interest, the time he was investing. The insight he was gaining with these seemingly endless interviews had a whole other level of importance than just to test the kids.

Dave glared at his screen for a second before resuming his typing. Jake chuckled to himself, and then grew thoughtful.

Maybe Dave wasn’t sure. Maybe he was still afraid that whatever move he was planning for the future was going to tip the odds in the wrong direction just because he thought he had the right reasons. Or whatever was in store for these kids was not exactly on the bright side of things, and so Dave didn’t like where his right reasons were leading him. Or maybe Jake just wanted to believe his friend hadn’t gone over to the Dark Side and was grasping at straws here…

It just wasn’t like Dave to go over the Dark Side, and Jake knew it. If it weren’t a really creepy and scary possibility, he would even have joked with him that maybe he had been body-snatched. Except there was too much of Dave in there to be anyone but Dave, so no, it just couldn’t be.

Dave stopped in mid-typing, his eyes going round almost as if in shock. Then he frowned, his mouth opened just half an inch, and a second later, he frowned even deeper. It was all rather comical, really, and it had been a long while since Jake had been witness to a bewildered Dave.

“You’re so amusing to watch,” Jake said, taking another sip while Dave continued typing, this time slower.

“This kid knows his business… but he’s not interested in money,” Dave half whispered as his typing almost stopped. “What the hell is he doing?”

It was a rhetorical question.

“Why do you think it’s a boy?” Jake asked, intrigued by Dave’s deductive instincts.

“A grown man or woman would have tried this earlier. You don’t wake up consummate hacker one morning, so I would have known about him before. He’s too audacious for his own good… girls are more careful. They must be born with a conspiracy gene or something…”

Jake smiled as Dave trailed off. “You’re amusing to hear,” he said as he continued sipping his hot chocolate. Dave barely grunted in acknowledgement as he resumed his faster pace with the keyboard.

“Why do they call it ‘rose’, if it is ‘red’?” six year-old Dave asked, his hazel eyes eager for an answer, while holding a red rose in his right hand. He had been asking that all day long, Jake knew, because Dave was always full of random questions like that, and wouldn’t let it go until someone finally answered. They had known each other for less than a week, but this was more than just a passing curiosity. Dave was going to be curious his entire life, Jake had known.

“Because the color was named after the flower was named. And see?” Jake had said picking up a yellow rose, “They can’t be called ‘red’ because roses come in different colors as well. Rose is just one more color.”

And that had been it. Jake had had his answer, and there was no one more wonderful in the entire world than him. It had probably been the first time Dave had seen roses to begin with, and that was why his fascination with the subject. Oh, he had gotten obsessed with roses for about a month. Only once he had gotten to know everything there was to know about the love flower had he moved on to his next fixation. No wonder Jake found Dave’s focus so normal now; he had seen all levels of obsession in his friend for a long, long time.

So why was it so difficult to trust him right this moment? If Jake knew Dave so well, why couldn’t he bring himself to tell him all the dark whispers that haunted his mind at night? Why was Jake so afraid of finally hearing the truth from Dave just to find out that yes, Dave’s intentions weren’t that good?

Doubt was preferable right now, really, but Jake couldn’t settle for that. Not after what had happened at the lab early that morning; not with the kids so stressed out that, honestly, the best place they could be now was anywhere but here. And here was the only place Dave wanted to have them.

Still, Jake remained passively watching because Dave was fending off some kid on the net who was actually threatening some of Dave’s codes. And when Dave was immersed in his virtual world, no one would get him out. Oh, Jake could try, and would probably get a sentence or two out, as he had done just now with the “boy” question, but beyond that? Uh-uh, it was a lost cause. Dave’s attention skills were something stunning.

Back when they were kids, Dave would sometimes go so much into himself that his eyes would become… vacant… almost lifeless, and it had scared Jake out of his skin every single time. He would have sworn then that Dave was going some place where he would never come back. A black void or something. One of the psychologists had said that it could be related to the fact that Dave had never really gotten over the trauma of losing his parents in such a violent way, and someone else had implied that Dave might have had survivor’s guilt syndrome.

Jake never really knew. He had been just 12 when he had first met Dave, and everything he had heard then sounded plausible and scary. Maybe that was why he had gotten the mental image that Dave’s dreams were filled with dark voids. As they had gotten older, and even afterwards, when they had been free to choose their own lives, Jake had kept a watchful eye. Had Dave gotten survivor’s guilt, he would be working to achieve self-destruction, and Dave was certainly not looking to ruin himself.

It was probably just one of Dave’s quirks, Jake thought. He hadn’t seen Dave doing that catatonic-like stunt for years now, and in retrospect, Dave had probably done it to piss them off. They couldn’t get any answers if Dave’s mind wasn’t there to begin with. And if Dave had known one thing since he could remember, it was that his mind was the most valuable thing he had, and boy, did he know how to protect it.

Dave tiredly sighed. “He’s given up… for now.” He rubbed his eyes for a second, and then stared at the monitor for a full minute, almost as if making sure the intruder was really gone. “The Keepers are going to be on the look out from now on, but I’m gonna have Richard trace him.”

Jake’s eyebrows arched. Dave had a lot of respect for their administrator for the sole reason that Richard had been able to track him down once, so this… “honor” of letting Richard into the hunt was a rare one.

“He’s impressed you.”

“He’s broken half of my level five codes. If I don’t get to him first, someone else will…” A pause. Then, “Maybe he’s smart enough to not let himself get caught,” Dave said as an afterthought. “But this is boring to you, tell me what’s been going on.”

Well, no, not boring, really. If Dave’s small empire was compromised, then Jake’s life would be compromised as well. So everything dealing with keeping Dave’s security up was of interest to anyone under Dave’s wing. Still, Jake had come here for a reason, and since his friend was finally closing his laptop, he was not going to waste time on matters that weren’t a priority right now.

“I want to call a truce,” Jake finally said as he set his now empty mug aside on the counter.

“You are having a fight with someone?” Dave asked puzzled, “Who?”

“You.”

Whatever Dave was going to say died on the tip of his tongue. And then, there it was, that hurt look that he got when someone he cared about was telling him something Dave couldn’t really comprehend, but that knew he wouldn’t like. Understanding seemed to finally settle on his features two seconds later.

“The kids.” It wasn’t a question. “What did I do now?” Dave asked, half jokingly, half exasperated.

“They are ‘this close’ to their breaking point, it’s not even funny,” Jake said, mimicking with his index and thumb the little time there was left for them, “and I’m going around in circles, trying to find a way to convince them that all we have are good intentions, but then… then I’m not sure anymore. And if I’m not sure, how can I assure them in return? I feel like I’m battling you and your shadow in every single word I say to them. I need to know your intentions. I need to know that we’re doing the right thing here.”

“You’re not sure this is the best thing for them?” Dave slowly asked, as if this was something they had discussed and settled ages ago. Which, they had, Jake admitted, but Jake had been under very different assumptions then.

“I’m not sure why we’re taking such extreme methods to make them believe we’re telling them the truth,” Jake said, they both very serious now. “They never wanted to be here, never wanted to trust us, never even wanted to explore their own limits. Everything we have to offer has nothing to do with what they desire. We just… we just took… manipulated really, what we knew they wanted, and turned it so we could get what we wanted. Except, at the end of the day, they’re not happy here. Why should they stay then? Why don’t you just let them go and protect them from the world from a distance? Weren’t you somehow doing that before?”

Dave let go a humorless laugh. “I wish it were that easy.” Jake frowned. “I really do wish it were that easy, Jake,” Dave said, a little bit offended that his friend wouldn’t believe his words. He stood up, closing his laptop all the way, and placing it inside the middle drawer.

“It was easier before, when we were still gathering information, because they could pretty much deal with their own enemies by themselves. The Sheriff was there to help them, at least while he was Sheriff… They were lying low, hardly looking for trouble… And then they blew up an Army base.” The drawer closed with a loud click.

“You’re right,” Dave continued, still standing, both men facing each other some 12 feet apart. “They have no reason to be here but for the fact that out there would mean much worse things.” Dave paused, his eyes getting lost somewhere behind Jake.

“We’re so damned gifted sometimes I do believe the world is out to get us, Jake…” Dave almost whispered, his train of thought having taken him somewhere Jake could not reach. He hated how Dave could go in zigzag through his own thoughts, saying apparently unconnected things. But his eyes re-focused on the older man, his expression still serious. “If I thought they had a chance out there, I would have done so. As it is, I’m placing you in the middle of the lion’s den, I’m playing spy agency for the Special Unit so I can keep an eye on things outside, and I have to deal with…” Dave stopped, as if suddenly realizing he should be choosing his words.

“Deal with…?” Jake prompted.

“Deal with kids,” Dave finally said, his eyes going down to his desk, the endless search for puzzle pieces beginning once more. “Kids that have no clue what’s best for them, who to trust, what to learn… God, they were sitting ducks out there. And you know what? They remind me of you and me twenty-five years ago, sitting ducks as well. We wouldn’t have trusted anyone back then. We wouldn’t right now either.”

That one last sentence took Jake by surprise. It was true. It was so darned true that outside Dave, Jake wouldn’t trust his life and his knowledge in the hands of anyone else, even after all these years.

“So, why does it matter if I’m the bad guy?” Dave said nonchalantly, taking one piece for close examination. “That means you’re the good guy.”

“That means I work for the bad guy, not that this is the right place for them,” Jake emphasized, clearly not following Dave’s logic. “I’m not even going to tell you what happened today at the lab to get this point through that stubborn head of yours, but if you keep this up, they’re going to leave in the middle of the night, scared to death that you will follow, and you will have no chance whatsoever of convincing them to come back!”

“You’re wrong,” Dave quietly said, his eyes searching in the sea of pieces the one that would fit in the vacant space he had in front. “They accepted thinking the deal was far darker than it turned out to be. They’re getting bolder, snappier and more confident around here because they’re trusting they made the right choice. If they thought, for one moment, that I would harm them, they would be out of here in a heartbeat. Even Maria agrees with me on that one,” Dave concluded with a slight smile. Then he stopped staring at the pieces, his eyes losing focus for second.

“What is it, Jake?” Dave finally asked, turning to look at him, the puzzle forgotten. “You’re way more upset than any other time. Did something happen?”

You have no idea. But now was the time for Jake to carefully lay his arguments and get a straight answer from his friend.

“When you first approached me, you asked if I would be interested in working with ‘gifted’ kids, knowing full well that I would die for the opportunity. Why didn’t you tell me they didn’t want to work with me?”

“You wouldn’t have accepted,” Dave said, his eyes never straying from Jake’s. “You’re the best person in the whole world to work with them. I couldn’t risk you saying ‘no’,” Dave shrugged, “and once you met them, you wouldn’t let them go.”

It hurt to know that Dave had so openly deceived him, but it actually hurt a whole lot less than learning he had some dark reason for wanting Jake out of the loop. Yes, he would not only have declined to participate, he would have condemned him, especially with their own pasts as examples. But one answer was not all Jake wanted now.

“Okay,” Jake said, nodding once. “So, what happened on that trip to Japan?” For the past days, Jake had been collecting clues, little hints here and there of what Dave had been doing for the past two years; it had all started with Dave bumping into the kids by accident, but then things had changed.

“What?” Dave said, confused, clearly not following Jake.

“Ray told me you went on a trip to Japan about a month after you discovered the Phoenix records. And you went from cautious observer, to obsessive stalker by the time you came back. Something happened on that trip, and if you really meant that I’m the best person to take care of them, you’ll tell me the truth, right now.”

Silence met Jake’s words. It would look as if Dave were slightly stunned by Jake’s revelation, but for all Jake knew, it could be Dave was wondering why on Earth Ray had noticed his change after a trip to anywhere. Dave tended to focus on the most absurd things sometimes.

He actually sat down while Jake’s piercing eyes never left his face. Even if Dave was a really good liar, there were still telltales that more than 30 years of friendship could not erase, and right now Jake was being very watchful.

“I realized I was going to be responsible for the men and women they’ll become.”

Jake blinked. Dave smiled. “That doesn’t explain… anything,” Jake finally managed to say, waiting for something more from his friend. Dave’s smile vanished.

“Right now, all they know is how to duck and wish for things to go away. The problem is, that’s not going to be good enough in the long run. They’re so damned gifted that if word gets out, they’ll be wanted from here to the Middle East. And one day, they’re going to be in a position where someone is going to corner them and make them do anything. We were lucky Jake. We were kids, we didn’t know what was going on half the time and certainly, we barely had a life before to miss.”

“But they do,” Jake said, narrowing his eyes, “So why are you doing this?”

“So they won’t end like us, I guess,” Dave shrugged with an air of someone who wasn’t completely sure about his own words. He sighed in that way that Jake recognized as Dave reluctantly arriving at some confirmation. “I took them because someone was bound to do it, and that someone was going to be responsible for shaping what they’ll want ten years from now. At least I’ll give them the chance to make an educated guess where they should be going. That’s way more than anyone would ever offer to them, and certainly more than anyone offered us.”

Jake was disconcerted. It was one thing that he felt he had been cheated in life because he had missed a normal childhood and adolescence, but he had never suspected Dave would project himself into anyone, much less hybrid kids, who were really young adults and were hardly defenseless. Jake had always known Dave’s view of the world had come from his parents, from way before they had met, and that despite the years where his intelligence had been used on things that would hardly reconcile with Dave’s parents’ views, Dave had always tried to stay on that path.

Maybe, after all, those psychologists had been right about Dave still dealing with some trauma, something to do with his childhood that he had never been able to get over. Of course, hell would freeze over before Dave would go to see a “head” doctor. He had never felt therapy could be of any use.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Jake asked, finally feeling, in some way, betrayed. They were friends, and after all the dark thoughts, all the secrecy, all those doubts…

“I thought you knew,” Dave said, arching his eyebrows. “I mean, I knew you didn’t know they weren’t looking forward to be here, but once they were… You even asked me about it on Monday, and I told you I wanted to protect them from the world.”

Yes you did, I just didn’t believe you then, Jake thought to himself, now feeling guilty.

“What?” Dave said, now suspiciousness filling him, “What did you think I wanted?”

“Well, you did withhold information from me, and I’m not letting you off the hook for that… but I… I didn’t know… You’ve been working for this for far too long, and there are just too many things that can happen… I guess it was just… a misunderstanding.”

“A misunderstanding? And they say you’re ‘gifted’? Where are your neurons when you need them?” Dave said, his attention back to his puzzle.

Jake watched him for a whole minute, wondering why he had gotten so suspicious, and if he had been so out of touch with Dave that he had really missed the motives behind this. Could it really be that simple? Jake convinced himself it really was, that it had to be a misunderstanding even if it had been really mean of Dave to not tell him about the kids’ motives from the beginning.

One thing he would concede to Dave, though, was that they had accepted thinking it was a far worse deal, and now it was up to Jake to let them know they had made the right choice. Feeling calmer now, he was ready to explain the day’s events, starting with Max’s visit, and ending with Liz’s visit. If anything, Dave had to be aware that his plan was not so solid after all.

Had he been paying really close attention to Dave’s eyes though, he would have read the quiet but solid fear behind them. Don’t let your neurons get any further than this, Jake, because I really can’t tell you more. For your own safety, buy the half-truths I’ve given you and don’t ask more questions. Not even I’m gifted enough to get you out of that kind of trouble.

[Misha]

Okay girls and guys! I only bring Kyle's part (thank you! my wonderful betas!) but Maria's is close behind

As usual, thank you for coming back to read!!

cjsl8ne, Max's interview is going to be interesting indeed... Now, for reveals... there are still a few surprises left in this book And sorry about not having two parts... but at least it only took ten days

Michelle in Yonkers, but why, my dear? Didn't you know that repeating questions back is an Aquarius trait? Besides, I was just trying to put in perspective what's been going on... And again, I'm working on Maria's part! Should be a short wait this time around

thetvgeneral, Thanks for sending it back so fast!!!! ::smooches::

Timelord31, even without holiday, I did manage to write a bit




XXXIV
Gifted
cont.



If there was something that would make Kyle Valenti smile, it was a good birthday cake. And he had to hand it to Michael, this was one grin-inducing birthday cake, complete with the chocolate frosting and just the right amount of spiciness.

The spiciness scared Kyle a little bit, though. Prior to his close encounter of the third kind with the Pod Squad, Kyle hadn't really liked much spicy food. Now he seemed to be able to spice almost every single edible thing without a second thought.

Of course, the one saving grace here was to watch how Michael, Max and Isabel would pass the Tabasco sauce from hand to hand, and nonchalantly spice their milk at breakfast, their lemonade at lunch and chocolate bars at dinner, which made Kyle's stomach groan. He wasn't that far gone. Yet. And he was confident there would never come a time when he would do the same. He was, still, just an average guy who had developed a taste for the spicy.

And let's keep it like that, thank you very much.

He really wasn't looking forward to the kind of life his three hybrid friends had, either worrying someone would find out about their secret, or worrying for the safety of those who knew and loved them. Granted, he was half-way there, but if his "powers" stayed where they were right now, and no more sparking green ever came his way, then he still had a shot at living a pretty normal life. Maybe not now, and maybe not in five years... but what about in ten? Or fifteen? What about when this whole thing was over, when he was ready to settle down, and when he met that special girl who would want to spend her life with him?

A girl who hadn’t been a queen of some alien world, nor the life-long crush of the king of said alien world. There was something ironic about the fact that he had fallen in love with both the once and the future queen of Antar, not to mention his short lived fantasy of Antar’s current princess. My God, he was so tangled up in the alien chaos it wasn’t even funny. At this rate, the only woman he was close to and who didn’t have ties to a far, far away world was Maria, and for all he knew, she was already his step-sister.

His love-life sucked.

But at least the birthday cake was mouth-watering. He really had to give Michael that.

In fact, the entire lunch had pretty much been one heavenly flavor after another. That pasta had been the most exquisite Italian cuisine he had ever tasted. Not that Kyle had an ample amount of experience in eating pasta, of course, but it had felt like some sort of capital crime to waste any sauce-dripping, slightly spicy, cream colored spaghetti.

God, he had eaten way too much. But the cake was still making puppy eyes at him. Eat me, I’m delicious! Eat me! it was practically begging him, and since Michael was not going to cook like this for a very long time, Kyle knew he had to eat it now or regret it forever.

And regret was not high on his list.

So it was with painful slowness that he started to go through his piece of cake. In fact, it was with painful slowness that everything seemed to be going. It was as if the six of them didn’t want the moment to end. This bubble of jokes, and cake, and teasing, forgetting where they were and why.

Back in high school, it had rather been the opposite. Days would usually go by uneventfully… weeks could go by without anything remotely alien happening. Of course, it never lasted, but the moments of true tension, of life-and-death situations seemed like the bubbles then. Terrible bubbles that would somehow just… pass. They would manage in the end.

Except life wasn’t that simple, and now Kyle knew better than to take for granted these moments of tranquility. Moments when seeing Isabel snap her fingers to light the candles while Max and Michael darkened the windows to make the room atmosphere appropriate were just as normal as singing Happy Birthday.

Maria had been thrilled. She had swatted Michael for keeping it all a surprise and scaring the hell out of her, thinking he was taking her away from this place on some romantic escapade. She didn’t have to say what it could have meant if they had gone out of here without Dave’s knowledge, they all knew, but all that was said about Dave’s interview was a dismissive, “Oh, it was nothing,” from Maria when Liz had asked, followed by a “Are those for me?” as she made a bee line to her presents.

It had been Maria who had made the bubble with that statement, really. They all had taken the cue about not talking about Dave, and Kyle had seen Michael relaxing at that. It was more than obvious that the man wanted this day to be perfect, and Kyle could almost swear that there was a vein slightly jumping in his forehead. Michael had spent the entire morning cooking, for all Kyle knew, but having Maria talking with Dave had been Michael’s real stress source.

Not that Michael was ever going to tell Kyle about a certain French cook, uh-uh.

And the truth was, it felt great. This little bubble of theirs, this distraction from things that had been and things to come was just what they needed. He couldn’t possibly imagine celebrating Maria’s birthday in such a carefree way, had they been any other place. The FBI had ambushed them less than two weeks ago, and they had been so scared that all they could think about was staying ahead. There was so much tension among them one could slice it with a knife.

Even Christmas had been a tough time last year. Missing home, missing real freedom. Fearing every face on the street, fearing their future. Heck, even fearing thinking about next week. And with Liz’s powers almost gone, things had seemed pretty grim. Was this the way their lives were going to be from now on? Running until there was no more road? Always looking over their shoulder and fearing the worst?

Well, no, but Dave’s offer wasn’t exactly a dream come true. It was just easier, Kyle guessed, because they knew where they were standing. If for nothing else, they knew the FBI was not going to catch them. And Kyle had to admit, since Dave had implied that he had a future in engineering, Kyle had been dreaming about that.

He had been told he had gifted hands when it came to mechanics and fixing things. He had even found Auto Shop relaxing. That had been one of the main reasons he had taken that job with Toby to begin with. Of course, later he thought it was a crappy job, and a few months after that, he thought there was no future in it. Yet he couldn’t deny there was a certain private satisfaction every time he could make a car roar to life.

So thinking there was potential in becoming an engineer if he could set his mind to it, was actually a pretty sweet deal. It made him wonder if he really could pull it off and what would it mean once this whole thing with Dave was over.

He suspected the others were thinking about it too. Maybe not in the same way he was, but certainly about having a future. Sure, they were more inclined to believe that darkness surrounded everything Dave had to offer, but if half of what Dave said was true… they were in for an interesting future.

Though now that Kyle was thinking about it, when it came to his favorite alien trio, the future had always been interesting.

Kyle stopped eating his cake for a minute and just looked at his friends. It was weird to think their three hybrid friends held so much power. Not only in the literal I-can-obliterate-you kind of way, but in the fact that they were royalty. If an Antarian rebel ship landed right this moment, their every word would be considered the law. Or something like that.

It was something they didn’t talk about much. Max had “given up the throne” that day outside the “pod chamber” –of all places- and he had dejectedly admitted that they really weren’t what they had once been told they were: He was not a king, Isabel was not a princess and Michael was not his second in command. Somehow, Kyle doubted that mattered. As far as Antar knew, they still had their royalty lost in some God forsaken planet, where the bad guys wanted to kill them so they could keep the throne, and the good guys wanted to bring them back so they could rule. Why would it matter what Max had said one windy day back in June?

Kyle wondered if they thought about it. About their “other home” and their “other lives”. When he had been younger, Kyle had hated how everyone had been expecting him to follow in his father’s –and grandfather’s- footsteps and become a deputy. Maybe Kyle would have given it a thought had not every single set of eyes in town been waiting for it. Yet Kyle couldn’t compare that feeling with the expectations on his hybrid friends’ shoulders. It had to suck to be the ruler of a place you couldn’t even remember.

Kyle guessed it also sucked to be chased all over the place because they were on the wrong planet. Here they were, with powers that practically were full of practically endless possibilities, and more likely than not an entire army at their disposal some thousands of light years away, and it didn’t matter. It didn’t make one inch of a difference. They had to defend themselves and remain hidden, and God forbid they dare think about a future.

No wonder Isabel had been so pissed when she had wanted to leave after Alex had died. Kyle guessed she had realized then how utterly stuck they were. Or rather… not. That was the absurdity of it all. Had their last summer not ended with assassination attempts, Max would have probably gone to Northwestern with Liz, Michael would have stayed in Roswell with Maria, and Isabel would have gone with Jesse to Boston. What unit? What stuck together?

Well, it really didn’t matter. They were stuck together now. And Kyle liked that. He would never admit it out loud –hardly admitted it to himself- but he felt somehow relieved that he had ended up stuck with them for the time being. There had been nothing big or adventurous or anything really worthwhile back in his hometown and his hometown life. Up until the moment that Kyle had actually decided to go with them all, he hadn’t truly understood Alex’s words that day in the cave:

Take a step away from your life, Kyle. You know, I mean, you’re part of this...this amazing thing. This... amazing knowledge that you have that 6 billion people on this planet don’t.

Sure it sucked for his love-life that he had ended up being involved in one way or another with Antar’s royalty, and sure the thought of those green sparks kept him awake half the night, but… but… He wasn’t really sure but what. This adventure had turned out to be way more than he had ever thought, and once he had started sparking green he hadn’t had much choice, but… craziness aside, life was anything but boring.

He guessed the big question was what did he want out of life? Not even Dave knew that. Dave knew what they needed right now, but not what they wanted. Maybe that was what Dave had been fishing around for in his interviews, to have a better bargain ready when they finally decided to leave. He had offered them the present this time around, why not the future next time?

Looking at his three “gifted” friends laughing about some childhood memory they were now sharing with the group, Kyle allowed himself to think that, if his powers did actually show up, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad either. They all three had found love, hadn’t they? As long as Kyle could keep secret his new emergent powers, maybe someday that girl who was destined to be with him would accept him and love him the more for it…

Maybe it would be some girl that Max would happen to save and so she would be stuck with them and… well, she would be gifted as well, so they would be the perfect match. Maybe she was going to be gifted in the way she would be able to put up with his alien friends and she would love spicy food as well. Kyle smiled at that: Be on the look out for one spice-loving girl.

Nowadays, along with his future and the future mother of his kids, Kyle had also started to believe that he had been gifted with the chance of growing. Of learning and cherishing his time with his friends. Because, who knew? In ten or fifteen years, this whole thing could just be a memory.

A memory full of Maria’s disregard for carefully wrapped gifts as she was practically tearing the paper off them now, Kyle silently observed. She was really into opening presents, that one.

Maybe his future gifted girl would be really into it too. And that thought was just as good as Michael’s birthday cake.



* * *

[Misha]

Somehow... I don't think they would like that...

Thanks for coming back to read!!! I'll answer feedback in a few hours, but THANK YOU SO MUCH for taking the time to review

Maria's birthday was a subplot that took life of its own... and I apologize in advance for having taking so long to arrive to Michael's gift. I certainly hope this part of the chapter is worth all the wait

There's one link provided within the story, that will take you guys out of the page, so if you wish to hear the file, my advice would be to right click on it and choose "open in a new window"



XXXIV
Gifted
cont.



No gift was ever taken for granted.

And no gift was ever opened slowly.

It was like one of those constants in life: Death, taxes, and Maria's inability to hold her curiosity. Nothing was more infuriating than a wrapping that wouldn't tear, a tape that wouldn't come off or a box that would get stuck as she was trying to see the little treasure inside. Because treasures they were, no doubt about it.

She had left her entire life back in Roswell. All her precious little moments in time left behind without a second thought. She had chosen to come and see what life was like out there, and part of her knew she was going to miss things, but she had never expected to miss them so much. Certainly not all of them, but now she wished she had carried one more picture of her mom and herself, or had worn that beautiful green sweater her grandma had given her the Christmas before last. Even that colorful, beautifully crafted, handmade napkin holder seemed invaluable now… Moments and gifts she was never going to see again.

So now it seemed like a monumental thing to gather things back. Little pieces of useless stuff, as Michael would call them, to remind her that she once had had a life, and that her past mattered. Little reminders that her friends cared about her and that they had taken the time to choose something for her.

Now, if only she could get to open that first little package…

"You're going to tear the present off at this rate…" Kyle jokingly said, though he might have had a point. Maria slowed down until a shiny white box met her anxious fingers, colorful wrapping paper pieces scattered on the floor. She was now opening Max and Isabel's gift.

Odd how she had expected to get a Max-Liz gift, and even a Kyle-Isabel gift, but had ended up receiving an Evans-sibling gift and a Liz-Kyle gift. Probably because they had been paired that way last time they had had a chance to stop to buy her something. God knew what a nightmare it had been to buy Christmas presents less than two months ago. A low budget and no privacy to buy alone and away her friends was a recipe for disaster when it came to keeping it all under wraps.

"What is it-what is it?" she said in a little singsong voice, finally lifting the top of the box. More paper met her eyes, but a shiny little white thing came to her hand.

The Mac logo shone in the living room light, as Maria contemplated the first gift of the afternoon: An odd looking iPod.

"It's supposed to be a fourth generation model," Isabel said with a bright smile, as if anyone in that room could tell the difference between a third to a twentieth generation iPod model.

"The guys at engineering showed it to us on Wednesday," Max continued, smiling as well while Maria kept staring at the small rectangular device. iPods were expensive, and had been on the market for less than two years. More than 1000 songs in your pocket, the ads used to say, and she had to admit the little thing looked cute too. "This model is not supposed to hit the market for another year."

That's why it looks weird, then, Maria realized, wondering if industrial espionage was part of engineering's duties. Years later, she would always laugh when remembering she had gotten a classic iPod model when it had been anything but classic to her.

"We spent a little time filling it up for you," Isabel continued their shared explanation. "They have a very wide selection in those touch screens at the apartments."

"And," Max said as if he were giving one grand finale, "you can also store pictures in it."

Maria looked at the small thing in her hands. This was one handy little treasure, indeed.

"Who the hell would want to see pictures so small?" Michael said out of the blue, to which Maria automatically swatted him. Again. Gees, the guy did redefine the term tactless.

"Forget Michael's words, this is really great!" Maria said with a bright smile while Michael rubbed his arm. Besides, after such an exquisite lunch, she was sure everyone would forgive Michael just about anything right now. Man, if only he had cooked like that while they had been on the run…

She swatted him again.

"What was that for?" he indignantly asked as Maria picked the next wrapped mystery, completely ignoring him. This one was from Liz.

The box was smaller than the first one, but not easier to unwrap. As Liz bit her lip in equal anticipation while Max put an arm around her, Maria finally let the colorful paper fall to the floor. Another white box met her eyes, but this one was the kind that promised jewelry inside.

And jewelry it concealed, indeed.

The silver locket shone intensely even with the pale winter light coming from the windows that overlooked the frozen lake. It was shaped like three oak leaves falling together, all detailed with intricate veins and raindrops. It was hanging on a thin silver chain, and as Maria lifted it to see it closer, the leaves rotated so she got to read the inscription at the back: Follow your heart.

Maria smiled at that. She had asked Liz a few times if Liz had had a flash of her future. Life on the road was uncertain enough, so why not have a little clue in advance? Were she and Spaceboy going to end up together? Settle down somewhere? Was she ever going to see her Mom again? Roswell? What kind of job was she going to do? Would she sing? Questions and more questions that had been equally met with Liz’s insistence that she didn’t know, or couldn’t tell her.

Follow your heart, Maria. Be what you want to be, and do what you want to do. Don’t feel tied up to some flash I had or become something you don’t want to. It just wouldn’t be fair after all we’ve been through.

Well, there was no need for more proof than her decision of following Guerin beside her to know she was –indeed- following her heart. Not in the sense that she had done it out of love exactly, but more out of wanting to find her place in life. She had done it out of free will, she guessed, and ultimately, her heart had led her back to Michael.

“It’s beautiful,” she sincerely said as she stood to hug her best friend in the whole world.

“I hope you’ll never take it off,” Kyle said out of the blue, “or mine won’t make much sense.” Liz laughed at that, sending Maria’s curiosity sky high.

“Yeah, it took us some time to decide, actually…” Liz said as both Kyle and her smiled in a conspiratorial way.

Maria turned to look at the two presents still left on the center table: a small one like Liz’s, and a big one that look suspiciously like a book. She picked the small one. More paper flew away as Liz sat down again next to Max, and Isabel took the locket for inspection.

A few minutes later, Kyle’s comment made sense, as his gift shone in the living room; twin oak leaves trios on a smaller scale being held in Maria’s hand, which were the earrings that matched the locket.

“We all follow our hearts, you know,” Kyle said with a smile, understanding flowing between them in a way that their hybrid friends wouldn’t really comprehend.

“You guys…” Maria said as she hugged Kyle. “It must have cost you a fortune,” she remarked, fighting tears.

Behind her, Michel nodded, not because he really knew how much the locket and the earrings had cost, but because he knew that Maria knew quality at first sight. And those pearls had been expensive two years ago… Isabel knew quality too.

“We managed,” Liz said with a smile of her own, leaving Maria wondering how exactly Kyle and Liz had been able to purchase these babies under her nose.

“You’re right, Kyle,” Maria said as Isabel gave her the locket back. “I’m never going to take them off.”

In the far off future, an older Maria, sitting in the middle of a Chinese plaza, was going to be playing with the locket and thinking about this day. She would take them off, but more likely than not, she would be wearing the silvery oak leaves as a token of true friendship from the closest humans to her.

The last present on the table now had all her attention, oak leaves shining from her ears and neck. Taking it, she felt a mixture of disappointment and curiosity. The gift wasn’t from Michael, but from Jake. Silence descended in the room as everyone waited for her reaction, watching her stand still in the middle of the living room, inspecting it.

"Use it wisely," she read out loud the card that was attached to it, written in the same neat handwriting that she had seen written on Dave's own birthday card. It was a heavy gift, wrapped in red paper with a mismatched blue ribbon awkwardly placed on a corner. She stared at it, not sure what to make of Jake giving her a present. She hadn't even met the guy, for crying out loud. Besides, was it even proper? Even Dave had seemed to think not, since he hadn't even said Happy birthday to her. But then again, what was she supposed to do? Not unwrap it? Trash it without a second glance?

She kept staring at it.

Chances were she was not going to like it. A book that big –and she was fairly sure by the feel that it was a book- was more likely than not going to be about a boring subject. No one could write a book that big and keep the reader interested for long. And what would be the correct way to address it once she did meet this Jake guy? Thanks for the book! No, no, I haven't had time to read it…? Seriously, why had Jake sent her a gift? It would only make things even more awkward than they already were…

"Aren't you going to open it?" Michael asked impatiently. Maria glared at him, not knowing Michael himself was getting nervous about the fact that she might not like his own present.

Shrugging a little and letting go a sigh of resignation, Maria tore the red paper effortlessly, only to find a red cover under it. White letters flashed through her eyes as she went all the way around the wrapping so she could read the title on the cover, thinking that of course, it was a book, her detective skills as good as ever.

The blue ribbon fell to the floor as all eyes fixed on her and her latest gift. Except for Michael's question, all that could be heard was the paper being torn, until she finally managed to have the book straight so she could read its name.

And then she smiled.

A somewhat malicious smile that would invariably make Michael nervous.

In her hands laid the book that she would read for the upcoming months, and would refer to in the upcoming years: Linda Goodman's Love Signs: A New Approach to the Human Heart. The zodiac signs book was a guide that described every single zodiac pairing there was to be found. With more than 600 pages, the author went on and on telling anecdotes and curiosities about each personality and how they related to the world and their significant others.

One didn't grow up a DeLuca without knowing that there was at least some truth about sun signs.

How had Jake known she would love it didn't bother her at that moment, as she started to go through the pages with one pairing in her mind: Man Sagittarius - Woman Aquarius. Or, in other words: Michael and herself.

"It's a zodiac signs book!" she proudly exclaimed as she happily sat back, as everyone’s interest was perked. It didn’t matter if her friends believed in this stuff or not, in Maria’s experience everyone was always curious about what their sign would say about themselves.

Everyone but Michael.

For the next ten minutes a discussion ensued between the two of them while everyone watched the storm slowly calm down. Later, the details would be blurry, but Maria would be fairly sure that it had all started with Michael saying it was stupid, because if any of it were true, then Max, Isabel and himself would all be the same. “We all hatched at the same time!”

“Could you quit saying ‘hatch’? It gives me the creeps!” Maria would defensively argue. “Besides, that Jake guy is some big shot genius, right? If he says it’s wise,” Maria would reason as she picked up the card with “Use it wisely” written on it, “then it must mean something!”

Somewhere in their argument she would say that if aliens were real, why not zodiac signs. Somewhere around that, Michael would say that sure, SETI existed, but there was no government or private agency researching for zodiac signs.

She would say that zodiac signs were as old as humanity, and as such, full of wisdom. And so on and so forth, until Michael was cornered by –as he would call them later- purely illogical statements that he just couldn’t fight off, and opening and closing his mouth a couple of times, he just finally gave up.

The clock struck 3 o’clock somewhere in the hut, as Michael’s words finally came out: “I’ve got you something.”

Suddenly, the book wasn’t all that interesting.

The thing about Michael’s presents was that more often than not, he did have his heart in the right place, but not exactly the mind to go with it. She had learned with time that with her Spaceboy, it really was the thought that counted. But once in a while, like with the napkin holder, he would actually ace it.

And if for nothing else, it was always sweet to know the poor guy had been agonizing over it. It meant that Michael cared for her, because the only things that made Michael nervous were the things that he held the closest to his heart.

By then her new book had reached Kyle’s hands, while Isabel had gone for a second serving of Michael’s masterpiece, a.k.a. her birthday cake, followed closely by Max and Liz, all four of them waiting for the blond couple to finish their argument. But they all stopped in the middle of what they were doing as Maria and Michael abruptly fell silent.

“It’s not much, but…” Michael began, his hand reaching for his pocket. He had told her back outside Dave’s office that he had gotten her a present, but once Jake’s had been opened and no more presents were in sight, she had assumed the present was still waiting for her at her apartment.

But now here it was, in front of her, a small rectangular bundle wrapped in brown paper and nothing else. Not a birthday card or a mismatched ribbon to go with. No way to guess what it was, either, except that it was solid to the touch, almost like a… like a box.

“I’ve been trying to properly finish it, but…” Michael said rather shyly, a rare moment that Maria didn’t spoil by tearing apart the brown paper, but instead opening it slowly. After all, there wasn’t much paper to begin with.

It was a box, indeed. A wooden box shaped like a chest with a Japanese symbol on top –though Maria would have generically called it Chinese- that made absolutely no sense to her. The box was still rustic looking, feeling a little rough on her hand, and surprisingly heavier than she would’ve thought, fitting easily in the palm of her hand.

“It means ‘trust’,” Michael said, almost as if he were holding his breath.

“It’s really nice,” Maria said with a smile, wondering what exactly was the deeper meaning of the box, intuitively knowing there was one.

“You’re supposed to open it,” Michael said before she could move in for the hug, making her think the real present was inside.

And it was, just not in the way that she expected.

Music started to play as she slowly opened the box, revealing what the little chest really was: A music box.

Soft came the first notes, her singer’s mind imagining a music sheet where each note would find its place. She didn’t recognize them, frowning, thinking hard why had Michael chosen that song.

Monk flashed through her mind’s eye. Michael’s friends and she hadn’t mixed much, to tell the truth, but the song had to do with something Monk had said while they both had been waiting for Michael at his apartment. By now the song resonated in her mind, though the first time she had heard it, it had been a faster paced version.

“It’s an anime song,” Monk had said as he had been playing it on Michael’s stereo, the lyrics coming out in Japanese.

“Aren’t you a little old to be watching cartoons?” Maria had answered, looking for a Snapple in Michael’s fridge. “What does it say, anyway?”

“It’s called ‘Promises are not needed’,” Monk had said glaring at her for the too old comment. “You know, it’s a love story. About how love is an incredible force…” Monk had trailed off as if he could actually understand what was being sung. “Basically, the theme tells you that, even if you can’t promise you’re going to be together tomorrow, you’re thankful for sharing the smiles you can today.”

It was so fitting it hurt. It had hurt back then, and it hurt now too. She had never known Michael had listened to their conversation, or that he had known she had found that the song pretty much described their relationship. Just like Michael had said, one day he was going to leave but… “There is one thing that I can promise you, and that is that I can give you now.”

She never told him that she really didn’t need promises.

She just needed to swat him.

“What was that for?!” Michael exclaimed in shock.

“You’re not supposed to make me cry on my birthday,” Maria said with misty eyes, the song finishing as she closed the box. “It’s beautiful, Michael, it really is,” Maria said as she hugged him, bewilderment written all over his face.

“So… you really… like it?”

She kissed him, a few lonely, happy tears running down her cheeks.

“It’s perfect. You’re perfect.” He kissed her back. “This whole thing was perfect,” she added between butterfly kisses. “That cake… that was perfect,” she emphasized.

In fact, why hadn’t Michael cooked like that for the past seven months?

She swatted him again. But this time, he was too happy to care why.


* * *


Author’s Note: Lyrics to the extended version of the song “Yakusoku wa Iranai – Promises are not needed” (including a video of the original anime, The Vision of Escaflowne) can be found here. No infringement is intended.

Linda Goodman’s Love Signs is a real book. And one hell of a read No infringement is intended either.

[Misha]

Hey guys!! Sorry for being MIA for so long, but I'm doing more research than usual, since Chapter 35, David, does involve details that are a little bit out of my league... Thanks a ton to ken_r for all his valuable knowledge and internet research skills!

I've also been a little bit busy helping out at the Superman Returns Sequel campaign, so we can get our sequel on track (what a roller coaster WB is!). So, in case any of you want to see Brandon Routh returning anytime soon, please check this address: http://www.bluetights.net/theplanet/sho ... hp?t=28166 It's like old times, sending postcards and all that stuff

Still, I do owe to answer feedback for Kyle's part, so that's what I'm here for. I'll answer Maria's next time

nibbles2, I think Kyle has the most optimistic perspective when it comes to the future, because Kyle can never stay serious for too long. It's just not in his nature. He has given this a lot of thought, that's for sure, but he's just not the gloom type. And secondly, I just can't picture Maria slowly tearing tape by tape and carefully unwrapping any gift... just... no.

tequathisy, it is nice to write them a little bit more relax, and Maria's bday was just the perfect ocassion for that. Though, of course, there's still a lot coming their way

cjsl8ne, Kyle's "girl" is somewhere out there... yes she is... but it might take a little while for her to make an appearance

wistful dreamer, I think out of the entire group, Kyle has the least darker thoughts about their future. He didn't grow up an alien, like our pod squad, fearing all the time discovery; and he's not currently romantically involved with any of them, so I guess he does get to think about a future outside this group. I never got a sense that Kyle really fitted with them, just that he had been thrown in their merry group by circumstances.

ken_r! You always seem to find some unknown meaning that I couldn't foreshadow myself But Kyle really is a complex character, and very unique from the rest of them. And FMax's words about Kyle becoming a great guy have always intrigued me. Where would our Kyle end? That's an interesting question.

xmag, I think it's a combination of many factors that have Kyle wishing for a better -and romantic- life. Especially the fact that he's celebrating a birthday, one that two weeks ago was hard to imagine happening as it is now. Things are still very tense for them, but since nothing has really happened, none of their darkest fears have come true, they're slowly wondering if maybe they're not in a black pit after all. But I bet they're still jumpy

Michelle in Yonkers, I think Kyle always wanted something... more out of things. He truly wanted to have a deeper relationship with Liz in the beginning (even if we all sort of hatedhim for that...), he was willing to go to great lenghts to save his father, he went through a change of philosophies in order to deal with stuff, and he even wanted a better and more promising job out of his mechanic status. Kyle is the kind of guy that rises to the ocassion when he's needed the most, and besides Maria, I think he's the most practical one of them all.

The are about 3 or 4 chapters left for this book, since both Max's interview and part of Dave's past have to be covered... and yes, book 2 will start eight years in the future.

kj4ever, longest.week.ever. I've been living with this story for five years now... I drive myself crazy...

Timelord 31, as usual, thanks for the support!!! and the nudging

Allie Xie, real soon is always nice, I know... At least this entire chapter is full of key elements... I hope that makes up for the long wait...

Skynet, thanks for the bump!

[Misha]

Hey! I'm finally here!!

This chapter wouldn't have been possible without my wonderful friend, ken_r. You're the awesomest of awesomest when it comes to research!! THAAANKS!! And, of course, those thanks extend to my wonderful betas, Kathy W and thetvgeneral, who make time out of nowhere to help me out! Thank you girls!

I'll answer feedback tomorrow

Thanks for coming back to read!!



XXXV
David


"I keep trying to picture her," Dave said, crounching in front of the bike that he would give Sybelle for her birthday, "sitting here, driving at an ungodly speed…" he trailed off, narrowing his eyes as he so clearly pictured a road somewhere in the middle of Europe, "and not killing herself…" He shook his head in a vain attempt at trying to purge such an image from his very active imagination.

"If you're so worried about it, why are you giving her a bike to begin with?" Jake frowned, half a smile on his face. He was enjoying Dave's suffering over this entirely too much.

Dave sighed for what felt like a minute, slowly letting the air go.

"She's going to get one somehow, someday… soon… I better make sure that the piece of machinery on which her life depends is the best designed and assembled on the face of this planet." Dave stood up, his eyes going over the very smooth and very dynamic bike. It was designed to run, and he wondered for the hundredth time –exactly the hundredth time- if he had made a mistake in making that a requirement: made to run.

But he knew Sybelle, and she wouldn't settle for anything but the fastest thing she could put her small hands on.

"You sound like her father," Jake said, stifling a laugh. Every year, for the past six, Sybelle's need for extreme sports had sent Dave's blood pressure through the roof. He shuddered at the thought of what would happen to him if he really had a daughter.

"Hardly," he grimly said, "A father would have locked her up when she turned thirteen…" he half murmured, his eyes searching for any flaw, any detail that might make the bike just a little less secure… Any excuse to not ship this baby to the old continent along with his belongings tomorrow afternoon.

"You gotta admit… she's really good at the extreme sports thing…" Jake reminded him, the one and only reason why Dave had agreed that a bike would be the best birthday present this time. He wasn't kidding himself, Sybelle had probably ridden her first bike when she had been 15, with that boyfriend that he’d better not even think about, and had done more adrenaline-inducing things in her short life than Dave and Jake put together, but it was one thing to intuit all this, and a whole other to know he was making it easier for her.

Then again, since the first time he had met Sybelle's distrustful eyes, he had known she was a fighter. He just hadn't known she was an adrenaline junkie as well.

"It has been a long day…" Dave said out of the blue. Between Maria, Susset, the hacker, the Network Keepers, Jake's recount of events with Max and Liz in his lab in the morning, not to mention Jake's need to know what Dave was planning –and God, did he hate half lying to Jake-, and now the bike, Dave had more than enough on his plate.

"It has," Jake agreed. "I'll keep an eye on Max," he added, both men concerned with that strange energy development. Dave would see Max in 15 hours, and he would make sure to notice every single movement his young guest would do. It also made him nervous that so many unknown variables were starting to come up. He hadn't counted on them.

No one had counted on them.

"Say 'hi' to Sybelle when you talk to her later, okay?" Jake said, as he was now taking one last look at the silvery, smooth surface of the bike. Jake and Sybelle had always kept an interesting relationship: Not cold, but more like a polite one. It wasn't Jake's fault, of course, who could ever blame Jake for not trying? No, it was a "Sybelle thing". Dave suspected she was a bit jealous that Jake got to spend a lot time with him, which she couldn't; but then again, Sybelle was also the protective kind. Maybe she thought Jake was not good enough for him.

Dave and Sybelle's relationship was more like an easy friendship. He didn't get to see her much, partly because of his schedule, and partly because it wouldn't be a good thing if anyone ever found out she was connected to him. But, on the rare occasions they did spend time together, they joked around, and she would tell him all about the new sport she had discovered, and maybe the new boyfriend that went along with it. She was so full of life. He had taken care of her since she had been six years old, looking for a nice family for her, nice boarding schools later, university now, and pretty much indulging her in some very questionable gifts from time to time. Like the bike.

He already hated himself.

"Will do," he answered Jake. His friend had said earlier he still had data to analyze from the morning's events, and since it was Dave's sleep time, Jake would take advantage of that so he could have a clearer picture of what had been going on by the time Dave awakened around 8:00 p.m.

He hated jetlag… Dave should be sleeping at the same hours as everyone else in here, but since he was going back to Berlin in 24 hours, what was the point? At least he wouldn't have to deal with jetlag and unsynchronized schedules there.

"Oh, Dave," Jake said before leaving engineering for good, "Happy early birthday!"

"You've been saying that too cheerfully for the past week…" Dave darkly said, remembering the birthday card with "getting closer to the 40's?" written on it. Jake just loved to remind him that time was flying by, especially when this time of the year was coming. Dave did love his birthday, he just didn't like seeing the numbers changing with each passing year. Besides, 38 was such a boring number…

Jake chuckled while he left the room, knowing full well what Dave was referring to. Yet the fact remained that tomorrow, February 8th 2003, would be his birthday. He had always done interesting things on his birthday, right from the beginning, he guessed. All the way from the day he was actually born, back in 1965.

He had done the research, of course. He had hunted down the newspapers and anything he could find related to February 8th, 1965, to the turbulent city of Algiers. They had won their independence barely three years before from the French, but everything was still unsettled, factions from both sides fully armed. To the eyes of the world, Algeria was already an independent country, but for those who lived there, peace was a term loosely used. No wonder his father had been attracted like a moth to the flame.

Dave wished he could remember more from his parents. More about what they thought and how they chose their battles. Why had they decided to go to Algiers, of all places?

He remembered playing with his dad's camera. So heavy, so complex, so shiny… so interesting. Had Dave been asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, he would have said a photographer, just like his dad. It all had seemed so exciting at the time. He had been just a kid, not even five, but already he was used to moving from here and there, unaware of the danger. Unaware of the pictures his father's lens was capturing.

Dave's life was already submerged in numbers and puzzles. Very little of the outside world would capture his mind. So what if they were moving? What if his father was catching suspicious looks for being an English man on Islamic lands? Why should it matter that her mother could very well be stoned to death for thinking about women's rights in a world where women could be bought and sold?

Of the few things Dave did remember, one was of how much his mother hated to wear those robes.

“It's not that they aren't pretty, Sweetheart," she had told him when he had asked, "it's that I should be able to decide if I want to wear them or not. Everyone should have the right to decide.”

It hadn't made much sense then. All he had known was that having choices was good. He wouldn't understand the meaning that being able to choose was better until he was seven.

He hadn't understood half of the time that he was in the middle of some protest or strike; or that hardly any children were brought to this kind of thing. By the time he was three he thought that being an activist was just another job, like being a photographer.

Human rights activist, as a job, seemed like a fun thing to be.

It hadn't made much sense until he was older –much older- that it was probably his dad's job which had kept them both him and his mother free from many jail cells. After all, being a freelance photographer for National Geographic had to count for something.

Dave had every single photograph by his father that had ever been published. Sometimes, he remembered the places, though he had been unaware of what his dad was photographing. He wished he could have something from his mother, but he had never really been able to go deeper into his mother's past. He didn't even know how his parents had met, just that both had been lone wanderers, who had cut their family relationships for things they truly believed in.

Passionate souls, Jake had once called them. The type of people who would chain themselves to trees and paint their faces and go to the freezing waters of the ocean to stop whale hunting.

So, with so many conflicts in the world, with so many places where his parents could have been radical human rights activists, why had they chosen Algiers? The place was pretty much a war zone. The French were bitter they had lost, the Algiers were bitter that independence wasn't exactly what they had thought once the military had taken over. Nobody knew what was going on, or when things were going to change for the worse.

Dave had the photographs from that day. They were never published, for which he was sorry, because at least then he would have had a caption, a story to go with them. An idea of why their parents had been shouting at a protest against the US Embassy one cloudy day in February.

It wasn't even recorded in the newspapers. It was as if it had never happened. No mention of the US Embassy, or of the pregnant woman who had been shouting right outside their gates. In the pictures Dave had, he could see another side of his mom, one of wild anger and passion, full of conviction for what she believed in. His father had captured her in four photographs, and then… then there was nothing else from that day.

Dave guessed she had gone into labor right there and then, and somehow, his mom had ended up inside the Embassy itself. Maybe it had had something to do with his father being a British citizen. Or maybe his photographer credentials had played a part. He had no idea. By the time he had tracked down all this information, hardly anything from that particular day still stood. Maybe it had all been buried so he couldn't find a better link to his past.

Oddly enough, not knowing more about it didn't obsess him, but he wasn't sure why. Maybe because his parents themselves didn't seem to bother with the past. They were who they were and they believed what they believed, and that was all that mattered, a view that he wholeheartedly embraced. There was no different life than the one he had, and no point in regretting past mistakes.

They had named him David, or rather, Da-veed, which was his Mom's pronunciation of his name. His dad, of course, had fallen into the habit of calling him David in the English style, but by the time he was four, little David understood perfect English and perfect Arabic to be comfortable enough with whichever parent was talking to him. His name meant "beloved", and for someone who had grown up between bullets, shouts, political conflicts and violent towns, Dave would never say his parents weren't anything if not loving parents. A bit radical, sure, but they believed that Dave had a right to know what the world was like, and that he could have a voice to change it all.

They were planting seeds.

If only they could see the forest he had grown.

He wasn't sure if his parents would approve of his methods, though. He wasn't shouting on the streets, or chaining himself. He wasn't on the news clamoring for the rights of human lives. He didn't do fundraisings to benefit this or that organization. Dave didn't think that, even if he had grown up with his parents, he would have done that either. Changes took place in more subtle locations. In elegant restaurants. At Opera interludes. Inside expensive suits. And hardly ever wearing anything that had cost less than $5000.00.

The one thing he was sure of was that, had he grown up with his parents, he wouldn't be branching his resources into so many things. He would have probably focused all his efforts into fulfilling his parents' vision, not because he had to, but because he believed they were after the right things. And as he had once told Jake, he would do anything for the right reasons.

But, he hadn't grown up with his parents, had he? No, by age six, Dave had been introduced to a world far more complicated than organizing protests, and far more dangerous than stopping whale hunting. He hadn't known much what was happening then, and probably wouldn't have been aware of it all until he had been older if it hadn't been for Jake.

Twelve year old Jake who became his best friend in the space of a week, a friendship that had lasted a lifetime. A friendship Dave was very reluctant to compromise, but he had seen no other way of achieving his long term plans otherwise. Jake would understand, Dave told himself, he would understand in the long run. Because at some point, he was bound to tell Jake, and Max, and all of them what he was truly doing. He wondered if it would happen on one of his birthdays.

So many things had happened on his birthdays.

When he had turned 25, he had decided it was time to revisit his past, just one last glance to the place where he had almost died. How ironic it had also been in the same country that had seen him born. Not the same city, though. Quargla, Algeria was a very different place than Algiers, the capital. Dusty, he remembered thinking. Dust he couldn't count. It had to be measured, and that bothered him. By the age of six, little David had traveled a lot, but was hardly conflicted with the life of the nomad, always asking about this new thing, or that cultural difference. They lived for the most part like westerners, but in an Islamic world, now and then they just had to blend in. Sometimes, he had wished he could wear the burka his mother so desperately didn't want. He liked the mystery of it.

He remembered the car. A land rover that made a terrible noise every time his dad shifted gears. The wheel was so big, the radius so large, Dave could actually remember his dad having a hard time turning it. It must have taken a lot of muscle, he now thought, slightly smiling at the idea that it would explain why his mom would seldom drive it. He bet his father would have cursed a lot under his breath on those roads.

Compared to the Jeep he had arrived in on his 25th birthday, he wondered how on Earth he had been able to keep doing math in his head with such thrashing and bumping around. He guessed Jake was right, he did have an uncanny talent to get inside his head and not get out.

Things had changed, and most of it was because he didn't have the same perception he had had being a six year old kid as he did as a twenty-five year old man. Things didn't look so big, for one, and he was more aware of the danger around him. He was barely beginning the foundations of his underground empire by that time, and possibilities were still stretching as far as the horizon.

It had happened at sunset. That was the last thing he remembered having looked upon, the red sun setting behind the mountains, tainting everything red. He probably had heard the noise, the loud explosion the land mine must had made when the car went over it, ending his parent's lives and changing his in a second. He should remember it, but he didn't.

Sitting on his Jeep's bonnet, remembering the way his father used the British term for the Jeep's hood, 25 year old Dave watched the spot where he knew it must have happened. He was glad he didn't remember the explosion. He was thankful that most of the scars left on his body were on his back, so he hardly ever thought of them. And he was relieved that the last images of his parents he had were of people full of life and passion.

His mom liked to smile a lot, he remembered, and so he did his best to smile as she did. Even if it meant to smile in front of the place where he could almost tangibly see where his intended life had ended, and where his "new" life had begun.

It wasn't until he turned around to enter his car that he noticed the most curious thing. And so it was, that on his 25th birthday, Dave had met Sybelle. He wasn't David anymore by that point, and he hadn't seen Jake for over a year either, not while he was still planning and taking directions he wasn't sure were good for his friend.

Sybelle had been six –or so she had later said- and hiding in his Jeep. She was a pretty and skillful thief, stealing whatever she could to eat, and the wild fear in her eyes told Dave she had probably stolen one too many pieces of bread. Wild, yes, but also defiant. It was almost as if she were daring him to shout for the people who were searching for her. Here she is! Come cut off her hands!

Even if that hadn't happened, Sybelle's future was a very dark one. He knew enough about small towns in the desert. He knew enough by looking at Sybelle that he had her future in his hands. He also knew he had no idea of how to take care of her.

And staring at the bike in front of him, 37 year-old Dave knew he still had no idea of how to take care of her. He had taken her into his world, the western world to which he half belonged, always wondering if she would miss her Islamic roots, the other half his blood had come from.

The world was so divided it was painful. It was one of his father's sayings. One of the few things he had truly held on to, along with the fact that they were citizens of the world, not just of one country. That idea had made all the difference in his life, and he had tried his best for Sybelle to have a good life as well. If not for anything else, at least he had given her the ability to choose from all the possibilities the world had for her.

Thirteen years had come and gone since he had become responsible for another human life, and some things had certainly changed. He was getting closer to the 40's, indeed, and the sudden weight of his life made him sigh. He still had so much to do. He still had a world to shape.

Yawning, he let those thirteen years roll by without much thought. Of all the things he had done, he was sure that his parents wouldn't look kindly on the fact that, for him, shaping the world was a very lucrative game. He would agree, though he couldn't do a thing about it. Without money, he would hardly be able to do anything his way. He had once smiled at a t-shirt legend he had read, "There's a better world out there, but it's more expensive". It was painfully true. Changing the world required a lot of currency, and at making money he certainly excelled.

He excelled at so many things it wasn't even funny, he darkly thought. It was rare that he would let his thoughts go down a path of what if's, like Jake loved to do, and rather than question who would he be if he had been average -he didn't like the term "normal"- he wondered what other paths he could have chosen. Who would he have worked for? Who would have taken advantage of his talents before he had realized he could do pretty well by himself?

Knowing it was pointless, he gave the bike one last glance. Thinking how his life could be different was as useless as staring at the bike debating the sanity of his judgment over giving it to his sort of goddaughter. He was tired, and the way his thoughts were rambling was proof enough of that. This day had just been too long, though he had to admit, for being his last day as a 37 year-old guy it had been pretty interesting.

As he finally turned to leave, he guessed there were no more surprises for the day. Still lost in thought about his past decisions and his future moves, Dave was already longing for his bed, without the slightest clue that this time, he wouldn't be alone in his dreams.


* * *

[Misha]

HAPPY ROSWELL ANNIVERSARY!!!! Nine years ago, we discovered Roswell for the first time... gotta go watch The Pilot again

Okay! Back with the feedback to the feedback of part 34.3. I seriously gotta stop posting just parts and hurry up with the entire chapters... right.

Thank you all who take the time to read and review! It's always great to see what you guys think

thetvgeneral, are you sure you want them stalking you? They are nice and friendly, but you never know...

ken_r, you're always making me blush Thanks for the compliments!

Natalie36, I do work hard with the candy moments, so it's nice to know I'm getting them somewhat right

Timelord31, as usual, where would I be without your nudging? Back in chapter 30?

nibbles2, thanks for saying the gift was sweet I'm not even going to name a few of the ideas I came up with while trying to be inside Michael's head... that's a scary place to be in for a Healer like me... But, I guess it worked out for the best.

tequathisy, I guess Maria's been working on Michael for so long now, that Michael was bound to get it right sooner or later Sadly, their normal moments will have to take one more hit -Max's interview- before they can return to relax a little bit. About Jake giving the perfect gift to Maria, there was a line that I never got to write in, from Dave or Ray, where they mused that Jake's first gift to anyone was actually that book... Jake really loves that book and wants to spread the love around

cjsl8ne, as much as I was tempted to really messed up with Michael's cooking -have I ever mentioned how much I love Danielle? That she was created solely to piss Michael off?- I did realize that Michael cares too much for Maria to be perpetually messing up. At least at some point, for once, he had to get it right...

Michelle in Yonkers, I wholeheartedly agree with what you said about Max. I don't see Kyle in such a harsh light -though you do make valid points- and I was never that fond of the guy, but I can't deny that I see potential in him ::shrug::

Chrystalkay, wow! that's what I call a MAJOR NUDGE!!!! Thanks!!

[Misha]

Oh.My.God.!.!.!.!

Jake won!!!

And even more shocker is that Maria won too!!!! And Michael got second place!!!!



So, even if I'm still not believing it, THANK YOU ALL who nominated and voted for my characters! It feels sooooooooo nice and somewhat a relief to know that Michael and Maria are coming out alright, and that my original characters can hold their own... It's hard to make an original character interesting when you already have six very interesting and beloved characters to play with.

Really, thank you

So, now I get to show off my banners

Jake R. Holt (hey, I hardly ever get to use his full name )




Michael

[Misha]

Hi again!

I did finish the next-next part, which is now with the betas... so it shouldn't take that long for the next update I'll return with the answer to my feedback soon THANK YOU ALL!!



XXXV
David

cont.


* * *


It was the weirdest dream she had ever walked into.

When Isabel had decided to take a nap at 4 o'clock, it had come as a last minute thought that maybe, just maybe, now she could get into Dave's dreams. After an entire week of attempting it and failing, she wasn't really trying that hard, but surprisingly, Dave was actually easy to dreamwalk. It was almost as if he was broadcasting his dreams, just for her to step in and have a look. They were just as vivid and detailed as Max's, except that Dave's were… crowded.

Though these thoughts came later. At first, she hadn't even realized that she had managed the trick. There was a certain feeling, a certain quality to reality that would always inform her that she had entered someone's dream, but this change was very subtle in Dave's mind. It was as if dream and reality didn't hold too much difference for him.

In truth, she hadn't dreamwalked all that much to begin with. She had rarely done so during her teenage years, and even after saving Laurie she hadn't been too active of a dreamwalker. Sometimes she got to see really messed up stuff, and she had decided that it wasn't worth scarring her own subconscious for life just to get a little thrill and some practice.

So when she entered Dave's dream, it really felt like the weirdest dream ever, if only for lack of comparison.

Her mind tried really hard to make sense of what she was seeing and hearing. It felt like she was in the middle of some bare, wide room. Everything looked somehow distorted, and too far away. It was also kind of blurry if she tried to look up, not to mention that sounds seemed deeper and sort of echo-ish. And everything was sort of bluish too. She realized then that it all looked watery, and that's when it hit her: Dave's dream was underwater.

He was dreaming he was swimming. At the exact moment Isabel had entered his dream, Dave was dreaming he was diving into a very deep pool, sounds of something metallic being hit, and people shouting something up above, filling his dream. As Isabel finally found him, she realized that Dave wasn't a man right now, but a kid. Maybe a 7 or 8 year old kid, and he was swimming with such delight even Isabel had to smile.

Emotions could be contagious when she dreamwalked. And sometimes she got some information about what the dreamer was thinking. With Dave, it was as if he was spelling it out to her. He was swimming because he was asthmatic, and this particular exercise was good for his condition.

He hated being asthmatic.

Nothing new about that, but it was such an intense feeling she couldn't just ignore it. So he was happy for being able to swim, but miserable for the reason behind it. He was also scared of going up to take air, though this she couldn't understand. As open as he had been a second before, his fear was just shutting down any information she could take out of thin air. He preferred to stay down here, where things looked weird and sounded weirder, trying not to think what was above.

Because whatever was above, it would cause him to have an asthma attack. He just knew it, and so, she just knew it too.

Instead, Dave was looking to the swimming pool's floor. It had a strange pattern to it, and he was making a complicated formula that would resolve what the pattern was. Along with the formula, his mind was also going through numbers and numbers doing God knew what with them. Something to do with Jake, or something Jake wanted him to do.

That was when she had thought Dave's mind was crowded. Other formulas started claiming his attention, and he didn't even flinch, taking it all in a smooth, organized way. Yet as his thoughts started accelerating, the numbers not adding up in Dave's kid version mind, he started to feel frustrated. At some point, he realized he was still underwater, and in the logic of dreams, he thought that maybe he should go up for air, because the puzzle of the pool patterns was turning out to be boring.

He looked up and Isabel looked up, and dread filled the dream. He truly, really, didn't want to go up and take air, which was exactly the opposite of what Isabel wanted. She definitely wanted him to go up so she could see what was scaring Dave so much. If she tried by herself, she would just end up losing the dream altogether, and it had taken her way too long to get into this man's head to risk that. She would just have to wait and see where the dream would take her.

She watched Dave intently, and as he closed his eyes shut tight, she realized that Dave was thinking he was running out of air. This could turn out to be a good thing if he decided to go up, but a bad thing if it would end up waking Dave to the real world.

Maybe she could direct him up.

The dream changed. The swimming pool became a river, and she was pulled away in the current as Dave stubbornly remained in the same place. With a clarity that she had never encountered before, she heard Dave's thoughts as if they were her own. He had to hold on until Jake would come.

She tried to hold on to something, thinking it strange that she had to abide by the laws of physics in a dream, but it was hard not to fight the current when it felt so real. Dave's next thought puzzled her, as she heard him think I have to grow up.

It wasn't that he wanted to be stronger, or taller, or bigger. It was that he wanted to be older. And he was wishing that with so much passion that the dream changed yet again, though they were still underwater. It was a lake now, with fish and algae under her feet. She was also holding her breath, and was slowly starting to take air. The water wasn't real, she scolded herself, but someone had yet to tell that to a slightly older Dave. He was probably around 13, and he was still shutting his eyes tight.

Just as if he had willed it, Jake entered the lake with a very stylish dive. He was no older than the young Jake version Isabel had seen in the doctor's dream three days before, probably around 18.

And he also looked awesome!

And he knew everything there was to know in the world, and he could do everything and anything and no one on the entire planet could ever say different.

The rush of thoughts kept inundating Isabel’s mind, almost threatening to drown her in the way the dream water couldn’t. Everything in the dream vibrated with these thoughts, it was just impossible to escape them. Dave admired Jake so much there was nothing he wouldn’t do for his friend. As Jake pulled him out of the water, all these feelings followed Dave’s mind. It was Jake who had known why roses were called roses, and why fractals were fun, and why grownups were confusing.

It was Jake who had needed him to be older.

“Wa’i,” Dave’s mind whispered with a child’s voice, and though Isabel had never heard that word before, she automatically knew it was Arabic for he knows. It was as if for one moment Dave’s mind had been simultaneously thinking in both languages. He knows everything, Dave thought as he reached the surface.

Air rushed into Isabel’s lungs as there was no longer water around her, and Dave himself took in a deep breath. Sunlight streamed down to meet him, and he stood perfectly still under it, only desert and sky around them, Jake having vanished from the dream. Dave was no longer a kid but 20, maybe 25, and his thoughts changed from childish admiration to that of honest gratitude. He was free, and it was all thanks to Jake’s plan.

After all the anxiousness of being underwater, of thinking he was going to drown, relief settled down in Dave’s dream. He was calm, and he was in control. And he was thinking Jake needed to be protected.

One second that was all that mattered, and the next a hundred thousand ideas started swirling around Dave, like a twister made of thoughts, surrounding them both. She was right there in the middle, behind Dave as he struggled with his own feelings. So many people needed to be protected.

He needed to protect Sybelle. What would a fragile child do in this world? A little thief today, a prostitute tomorrow? Would she even make it to 15? For a second, the twister’s inside wall took the same form of the desert beyond it, and then kept changing, the colorless ideas moving and shifting into golds and yellows and browns so Isabel was staring at some place with sand and sun and violence. It shifted to the puzzle Dave had been putting together the entire week, and she knew it reminded him of home. His home. Sybelle’s home.

No, the world was his home.

That’s what his parents had said, that’s what Jake had insisted on, and that was the idea he had clung to through all his childhood years. Now that he was free, the world was his to protect.

The twister of ideas stopped, and the air was clear again. There was only the sound of gentle wind, and though the sun was high in the sky, it wasn’t hot. It was just warm, nice and soothing. Unfortunately, all this clear space left Isabel completely unprotected, with no place to hide. Just as she thought this, Dave turned and looked at her, a little surprised. Then he frowned.

“You’re not that easy to protect either,” he said out loud, thinking how hard it was to protect the world. But protect it from what? Isabel fleetingly thought as his hazel eyes pierced hers.

The desert disappeared as he stared at her, their location changing to one of an airport. Hangars. Biplanes. The sound of airplanes taking off and landing became the predominant noise, along with the smell of oil, and gasoline, and metal. They were still standing facing each other, half inside a hangar, half outside looking at the runaway.

“It’s always tricky when it comes to you,” Dave said, and this time it was his usual self, all 30 something years on him. He shifted his eyes to somewhere behind her, and Isabel couldn’t help but turn and follow his stare. A fancy, semi-private jet was being boarded about 300 feet from them, an Asian stewardess smiling as a couple of people went inside.

“Always,” Dave remarked as he went past her to board the jet himself. And just as she had known all Dave’s previous thoughts, she now knew that whoever had boarded that plane just now had something to do with them, and that Dave was both anxious and relieved about this meeting. He had to be cautious, because this person was someone who made him uneasy. Someone who wasn’t under his control.

Someone who also had to do with protecting them.

She turned to follow him, her heart slamming at her ribs at the possibility there were more people involved in their lives than just the ones they were aware of, when the dream just vanished.

Wherever he was, Dave had just awakened, leaving her behind with a thousand swirling questions in her mind.


* * *