“Okay we need to stop this,” Isabel was trying to persuade Michael to lay off with the boy. Ellis was sitting against the wall, and she knew this wouldn’t help anyone if his friend unleashed his dad fueled fury on the boy.
“Then leave me alone,” Michael glared. “He needs a scare after what he did to Grace and Elizabeth. I am not willing to let him walk away scot free because of who his parents are and what he might know.”
“No,” Isabel glared right back at her friend. “Do you think I want him walking around, I don’t, but I do know this is not the answer to all our problems even if for a moment it might feel like something we should do.”
“Then leave,” Michael muttered. “I didn’t ask for you to be here. Maxwell would be on my side.”
“Think again,” came a voice as someone came down the stairs. “Somehow, I knew you would be here, when Maria said you were missing. And I didn’t have to hear it from Jim to know that I was right. What are you doing?”
“Max,” Isabel muttered with relief. “Talk some sense into him, please.”
Max walked down the stairs and saw the boy who had raped his little girl and attacked his goddaughter sitting against the wall, unconscious. “Please tell me you didn’t anything to render his unconsciousness?”
“Is that the lawyer in you speaking?” Michael asked.
“It’s the concerned best friend, and the desire not to have to defend you in any court proceeding in the coming days?”
“It was a pure spur of a moment decision. Don’t you have more pressing matters to deal with than this…”
“You mean a daughter who is barely has any movement in her legs, and dead wife who is no longer dead and without any memory of our love. And two additional children whose childhood I missed, yes, I have more pressing matters than this, but you matter Michael. This is not the answer.”
“But it feels good,” Michael said. “This slime deserves anything that comes to him.”
“We have been trying to convince at length our daughters to not repeat the sins of their parents, and now you go and add to your lengthy record.”
“I’ve been trying to tell that to him,” Isabel muttered.
“This isn’t the answer,” Max insisted.
“Then what is?” Michael asked as the three original aliens looked at the boy in this midst and contemplated what they would do with him.
*
“Why can’t I get a hold of your father?” Maria muttered back at home. She and Elizabeth were finally back at home after a long day at the hospital and she was trying her cell phone numerous times. The hospital was all clear in terms of Grace, and Jake, who was grumbling about being kept from Grace and visa versa which only made her smile as her worries continued about how intense the teenagers were getting about each other.
“You know Dad, he’s a mystery” Elizabeth offered as she decided to help her mother and start dinner for the family. She didn’t cook much, but she knew how. “I am sure he’s fine.”
“Oh, I am sure he’s fine, but I am worried about what he might do,” Maria muttered.
“It will work out,” Elizabeth nodded.
“You’re one to tell me that after what you pulled today,” Maria asked. “Has it only been 24 hours,” she murmured.
“What did I do?” Elizabeth asked.
“I don’t feel like recounting your adventures, so know that I don’t want a repeat okay. I can only take so much, and I have enough worries right now to have you muck up your education okay,” Maria asked.
“It’s not the end of the world. It was one day Mom. Jake and Grace will be fine, and yes, I plan to go back to school on Monday. Although truthfully, I am worried with Ellis out of the hospital now, then he’s liable to do anything…”
“Ellis, right,” Maria asked. “Give me your phone.”
“Why?” Elizabeth asked, alarmed.
“Just do it okay,” Maria gritted out as she took the phone from the teenager and started dialing and waited and waited and was going to hang up when it someone came on the line. “Pass me to him,” she said with a groan. “I don’t care if he doesn’t want to talk to me Max, tell him to talk to me now or he’s sleeping at your place tonight.”
“Mom,” Elizabeth asked wide eyed.
“Make dinner,” Maria said to the teen, and she waited, and a moment came. “Stop what you’re doing Michael. I know you are up to your old tricks, and even if I admire your tactics and cheer you on, but this isn’t the answer so stop it.”
*
“I don’t believe it,” Isabel said. “Maria tricked him.”
“I knew when I saw Elizabeth’s name come up on the phone that it was probably Maria trying to track down Michael and using their child to do it,” Max laughed. “If someone would talk him down since we aren’t accomplishing it. I’ll take anything.”
“Don’t you just want to leave this place and him behind and ignore it.” Isabel asked.
“I do but it’s not the answer,” Max said as Michael talked to Maria on the phone as he only shook his head, and then put the phone away and walked part Max and Isabel and out of the building.
“What are we to do with him?” Max called.
“You decide,” Michael said before vanishing.
“Only he would leave us behind to clean up his mess,” Isabel muttered. “Reminds me of when he was a teenager.”
“It does, and it’s not a good reminder given I have a teenager that age” Max muttered. “So, what do we do?”
“Leave him?” Isabel suggested.
“That is pretty Michael of you,” Max asked.
“Let’s give him a scare. Leave him alone, and see where he is later?” Isabel asked. “Maybe it will give him a new perspective.”
“We should be better than this, now that we’re older?” Max asked.
“We should be, but we’re not.” Isabel reminded her brother. “So, let’s leave him.”
*
“I don’t want to know, do I?” Jim asked as he arrived at the home of stepdaughter, and grandchildren. Amy had wanted to come and check on Maria and the family, and Jim had come along. He had heard that Michael had disappeared, and knew it was suspicious as hell, but he wasn’t going to ask any questions, so he could deny everything if it came to it. After all, too much had gone down over the years not to simply ignore.
“I would think not,” Maria advised as the front door opened and in walked her husband who only shook his head when he saw Jim. “Don’t worry I didn’t call the cops” she said to assure her husband.
“I didn’t figure you did,” Michael said. “Jim, Amy!”
“What did you do to Ellis?” Maria asked as she confronted her husband, as Elizabeth stood in the backdrop and frowned over the conversation. She didn’t want her father to get in trouble for dealing with Ellis. She should have stayed quiet about what he did to her or tried to do to her.
“Nothing for you to worry about,” Michael assured his wife which only got her more upset.
“Oh god what did you do?” Maria fretted.
“It’s nothing to concern you with, right?” Michael sighed. “I don’t want to get you into any difficulty,” he said to Jim.
“This family has given me more than enough,” Jim said honestly. “The Ellis family has already reported that their son didn’t show up at home. Do you know where he can be found?”
“Not really,” Michael lied.
“Watch it Michael,” Jim warned. “As much as it wouldn’t hurt the world to have Ellis out of our way, the last thing you want, or Max needs right now is the mess with the Ellis family.”
“You don’t have to worry,” Michael said.
“I worry,” Jim said but knew to stop it for now. “Be careful, okay?”
“I haven’t done anything to Ellis, so don’t worry” Michael lied. “I am sure he will be home eventually…”
“Let’s hope,” Maria said as she only shook her head as she and Amy walked into the kitchen and took Elizabeth along with them.
“What did you do?” Jim asked once they were alone.
“Let’s just say Ellis has gotten a scare…” Michael said carefully. “I won’t say anymore, but when I left him, he was alive… and he’ll eventually head back home one would think.”
“Where is he?” Jim asked.
“I don’t know,” Michael said honestly.
Max and Isabel might have moved him he muttered to himself, and only himself.
“Oh god,” Jim only shook his head as he walked into the kitchen besides a barely repentant Michael.
“Please Dad don’t tell me you did something to Ellis,” Elizabeth asked. “Because of me.”
“I can say I didn’t do anything to Ellis he didn’t deserve, and really I didn’t lay that much of a hand on him so don’t worry,” Michael said and knew that he needed to temper any behavior in his impressionable teenager. “But don’t you take that as license to continue to act out.”
Elizabeth only shook her head as she grumbles as she walked away,
how can I tone it down when he goes all psycho himself?
Michael only sighed.
“You know she’s right, right?” Maria glared at her husband. “How can we tell our children to be careful, and not to repeat our actions or sins and then you turn around and go off the reservation.”
“He hurt our family,” Michael murmured. “I couldn’t let it stand.”
“Look I wish he were dead for what he did to Grace, and what he tried to do to our daughter, but we also have to be on the lookout because he’s dangerous with any knowledge of our secrets.”
“Unfortunately, I know,” Michael admitted. “It was spur of the moment and something rash I know, but I couldn’t help it.”
“Elizabeth is very much your daughter,” Maria sighed as she walked away, and Michael could only shake his head with agreement as he wondered what would happen with Ellis as he turned and walked into upstairs while he dialed a number on his cellphone. “What’s happening?”
*
Max sat staring at the building and trying to figure out how to handle this. Isabel had pushed him out of the old museum where Ellis was located as she decided she would handle it. Max wanted to help, but Isabel figured that it would be better off if Max wasn’t seen so now Max was off trying to figure out what happens now.
And before he knew it, he was driving somewhere, and parking and now staring and trying to figure out what would happen.
*
Ellis woke up in the dark of a room, and it was clear he was alone. He didn’t know where he was or who had taken him. He had some fuzzy memories of being grabbed and stuffed into a trunk, but no clear memories.
“Where am I?” he asked out loud.
“Hell,” came the response.
“What… who is that, who are you?”
“Your worst nightmare,” said the shadow who let the words hang in the air. “You messed with the wrong family.”
“If this is about Grace Evans or Elizabeth Guerin, then you came to the wrong place. They are liars. And this is all a misunderstanding,” Ellis tried.
“I don’t think so,” the voice said. “And it’s my job to clean up this mess” he muttered as he came closer. “I can’t let you ruin everything we have come to achieve on this planet.”
“WHAT,” Ellis asked as he heard the voice come closer. “Hey, stay away from me” he murmured with true panic as he saw the figure approach…
“You’re in no position to give demands,” the voice crackled as came closer and screams could be heard in the building, that didn’t get through the walls, so the citizens of Roswell went on being oblivious.
A note was left in the aftermath…
*
Max was pulling up to his destination, and he didn’t know if this was right move but with his daughter in the hospital, it didn’t appeal to him to go home despite the long day he had just gone through, so he took the chance, and parked, and got out of his car.
*
Meanwhile Beth was changing into some pajamas. The girls had fallen asleep after an easy dinner, after having spent such a long and productive day in their minds, and Beth was just as exhausted in her motel room as she came out of the bathroom and heard the knock on the door and Beth couldn’t help but wonder if Alexandra or Carrie had woken up. “Yes,” she asked a little tentatively.
“Beth,” came the voice behind the door.
“Max!” Beth asked as she came to the door and opened it. “What are you doing here. Is Grace okay?”
“She’s resting as far as I know,” Max smiled at the woman who used to his wife or might still be if they could figure out the dynamics between them. The last twenty hours had been full whirlwind of emotion from almost losing his daughter, to finding Beth and the twins, and it still hadn’t hit him how he was supposed to go from here with Beth, and the twins. She looked like Liz, and yet she wasn’t the same woman he knew fourteen years before… He wasn’t the same man, but at least he knew who he was. Beth didn’t know who she was, and that meant a rocky transition would in the offering once they came down from the adrenaline rush of the last few days. “Oh, I see you’re going to bed?”
“It’s alright,” Beth smiled. “I was tired, so I was trying to relax. I was going to read some medical research for bed.”
“That is light reading?” Max smiled.
“It usually helps,” Beth smiled. “Or it did in the past, so you couldn’t handle going home, right?”
“Right?” Max admitted. “I am used to the empty house because Grace works most nights, or if she’s not than she’s out being a teenager with her friends but still, knowing she won’t be home is making it hard to go home.”
“How long has she worked?” Beth asked, curious.
“Since she was thirteen,” Max smiled. “She works at her grandparent’s restaurant as a waitress and she does seem like she is natural. Just like you were…”
“I was?” Beth asked.
“Yeah,” Max smiled. “That is sort of how we met because we didn’t at school.”
“Kyle said we all went to school together?” Beth asked. “Why didn’t we meet at school?” she asked as she was curious about the missing time in her past, and yet nothing was coming to her and she wondered just the connection they shared.
“We did,” Max smiled at the memories. “We met back in third grade, when I first started at our elementary school once my sister and I moved to Roswell and were adopted by our parents and were put into school, the same one that you were in.”
“You’re adopted?” Beth asked curious.
“Yes,” Max admitted. “My sister, Isabel and I were adopted by our parents when we were six or seven. Initially when we came to Roswell, we were in the foster system before we were adopted, and it took time before we were ready for school.”
“Why?” Beth asked as a quick flash appeared to her of
orbs that were flashing, and two small kids; one blonde and one brunette and it dazed her.
“Because of who we are down deep,” Max said truthfully. “We weren’t average kids, even though our parents didn’t know it at the time when they adopted us from the foster system. We were kids wondering outside of town, and they found us… and the rest was history.”
“Oh, you mean, your unique gifts?” Beth asked, as she wondered about this man. Just the feeling of calmness when she was with him was something, she hadn’t experienced in the prior fourteen years besides with her work colleagues. To feel so comfortable, was so at odds with everything but then they were supposed to be married, she mused to herself and that was so weird for her to face.
“Yeah,” Max admitted. “We came to Roswell, and it took time before we were ready for school. But when we were ready, and our parents put my sister and I into school… that is when we met, but you didn’t know I was alive?”
“Really?” Beth asked.
“Yeah,” Max smiled at the memory. “You were all about your friends in Maria and didn’t think anything about me. And so, we just sort of slid along in school, co-existing as classmates or once we were in high school, lab partners but then that all changed.”
“I was dating Kyle?” Beth asked.
“You remember?” Max asked.
“No, Kyle told me when he was visiting me in Connecticut,” Beth admitted. “He said we dated for a few months before breaking up because you and I had met.”
“More like saw each other differently,” Max smiled. “You tried to make it work with Kyle, but yeah, it just wasn’t working out because coupled with what was going down with you and me. We all were teenagers, and we were bound to make harsh choices. Kyle and I at the time weren’t that friendly.”
“Why not?” Beth asked.
“He saw me as competition…”
“For me?” Beth asked.
“Yes,” Max admitted. “He was jealous, and even though you and I took our time getting there… and he really didn’t have any reason to be jealous, he saw it was inevitable, and that affected the ability to be friends, and only later did Kyle come around…
“And he eventually married your sister?” Beth asked.
“Yeah, that is another long story” Max smiled at the memories to their teenage hood. “It was a very tense time for all of us, and I am surprised we managed to come through it to the extent that we did because not everyone did...”
“It all seems so unusual,” Beth said a rush of feeling came through her, surprising her as she could feel a shout in the distance.
no…no… Kyle… Save my son, please… and the flash ended, and Liz felt went pale and Max became concerned as he came closer to the woman who held his heart from that moment in third grade to the present. “Liz… I mean, Beth… what is it?”
“Kyle… he got hurt?” Beth asked as she posed the question to Max. “I remember a gunshot, and him being hit…”
“Yes,” Max nodded.
“Someone was pleading with you to heal him, and you did…”
“Yeah, I did although I admit that it a few seconds to decide to do it,” Max admitted. “Kyle did get injured, and I ended up healing him… as it was just months after you know what happened to you. It was not that I didn’t want to, but when I helped you… it opened a lot of worries for all of us, and to bring someone else into the secret.”
“Can I ask, is he different?” Beth asked. “Like you said I was, or the twins are…”
“No!” Max shook his head. “Kyle is his normal self. I don’t understand why he doesn’t show any signs of changing, but you did. You were the first person I saved with my talents, after years of keeping it quiet, and trying to blend in along with my sister and Michael. We still don’t understand it, even today so many years later. Maybe it was just a quirk, and unfortunately had lasting implications for you, for the life we led.”
“And yet the new generation do?” Liz asked.
“Yes” Max sighed. “I wished they were normal. Life would be so my simpler if they were, but because of their genetics. We all haven’t been so lucky to have our kids without some special ability, and especially given you bring some abilities to the equation.
“Right,” Beth sighed as she worried about the twins, and now the knowledge that they had abilities that she had never had any inkling about as they grew up. It made things so much more complicated. “How has Grace dealt with them?”
“She’s known since she was a baby, and for a long time we weren’t sure… but then as she grew up. It was apparent, but she has taken up the same strategy that Michael, Isabel and I did when we were growing up. Staying low key and blending in and she’s actually been pretty good about it until recently when as you’ve seen her life has gone from one extreme to another,” Max sighed. “Sometimes I wonder about that normal life…”
“Normal isn’t always what it is thought to be,” Beth smiled.
“But it would feel nice,” Max smiled. “I hate to see the drama of when we were teenagers revisited on our kids.”
“Unfortunately life happens, and we can’t usually prevent it from having pain…” Beth sighed as she looked at Max, and she couldn’t help but feel a influx of rush and feeling come through and she didn’t know whether it was just the adrenaline of the last few days, and just by it’s nature of being close to Max and everyone who loved Liz Parker Evans so much or this was a genuine rush of intensity as she looked into Max’s eyes as they became closer as they leaned forward, and they exchanged a
very heated simple kiss…