The Story of My Life (CC, Mature) - Chapter 75 - Completed: 04/25/2021

[keepsmiling7]

Well, Zack hit the nail on the head.......it does take two to tango!
He needs answers, most children would.
Phillip continues to feel guilty, but now he has a big surprise.
Teen age moods are always there.

[Parker1947]

“What do you mean there was someone else on Tess’s ship when she crashed back onto this planet,” Michael acted with outrage as he stood in his home office. Isabel had stormed into the house and came out with a burst of stream of consciousness and it was hard to follow what she had been saying as he had finally gotten home after dealing with a complex case that had tested his nerves, and the last thing he needed was more stress. He had been looking forward to spending the evening with his wife. Now his best friend had upended it with what he could make out as, there had been another alien on Tess’s ship when she came back to the planet with her son. “That is impossible?” he murmured.

“Is it?” Isabel asked. “You saw it crash, but you didn’t see who was in it because you were off on your post Max’s grand resurrection funk and you came upon the downed missing army officer” Isabel muttered as none of them could stand Michael as he dealt with what it meant for her brother, and his honorary brother to basically be resurrected, and to come back to life. Because Max had died. The Seal of Antar, that told them who the rightful leader had transferred to Michael because of course Antar did not care about female rule. It was encoded in Michael to step up if the need called for. None of their books or anything on record indicated what happened when you resurrect yourself with the kiss of your soulmate mirroring a true love’s kiss as the fairy tale writers will tell you. You turn into ash like any honorable alien hybrid, but then you take over a mad man’s body who wanted to kill your beloved, so you are now a new person, and in a new body, and a kiss revives you…

That was how they described Max in those days after everything went down. He never wanted to talk about it. Still, Michael took over leadership due to be encoded with the seal, and his reign was brutal and short thankfully Isabel mused to herself as she was also going through some hard times in her first marriage to Jesse as her lies about who she was, had finally come to rouse and Jesse had stepped up to the plate, but it had done in their marriage in the long run. She knew she was much happier with Kyle, and Jesse went onto what he was destined to.

“The baby?” Michael muttered.

“Was in a different part of the ship, and the army was trying to get the door open when Tess unleashed on them” Isabel muttered. “So, we actually don’t know who was in the ship with Tess because we didn’t see her get out of it. For all we know, Max is right.”

“How does Max know?” Michael asked the million-dollar question.

“Some guard was all he saw in his message” Isabel sighed. “My brother wasn’t very specific,” she muttered. “It’s obvious he hasn’t gotten a total control of messaging technology?”

“Part two of same question, how does he have a phone?” Michael asked because none of it made sense. “We are supposed to believe someone has been out there all this time and laying in wait while Max was in prison for sixteen years?”

“Somehow Tess found another ship to be able to come back?” Isabel answered. “So, and she couldn’t have piloted it herself?”

“That makes sense,” Michael muttered. Because none of it makes sense “Where does that leave us?”

“With someone to question because you are right. Why would this person leave Max in prison all these years if they had information, to all that went down back when the army base exploded?” Isabel muttered. “But it gives us somewhere to look?”

“No, it gives me something to look at,” Michael confirmed as he sighed because he knew how Isabel wanted to help but to succeed in helping Max, well, everything did have to look as it is above board. “You can’t be part of this?” he sighed. “At least not right now…”

“Max is my brother?” Isabel demanded. “You are not going to leave me out of this because this as my calling all these years. Dreaming of the day where we get somewhere?”

“Yes, he is, and he’s also your client now” Michael murmured. “If we are going to find out anything more, than it has to be me who goes up to the prison and asks questions because they will clam up because of who you are, and I might get more from this person. You also have been up there more than you should have these last few days, so allow me to us through this part of it, okay?”

Isabel grumbled because he knew Michael was correct, but she hated to have admitted it and it sucked to have to, but if it got them her brother out of prison and home to them, and most of all Liz and Olivia than she would have to live with it “Okay, fine…” Isabel muttered because she knew he was right.

“Do we have a name?” Michael asked.

“Serena Scott” Isabel sighed as she thought of how complicated this case was, and if they could get even a sliver of hope in all this Please let this work out. “I do appreciate this Michael because I know how tiring all this is on top of what you and Maria are doing with hear at home, but I feel like it’s leading us somewhere and therefore we can’t stop now…”

“I know,” Michael muttered as he could not help but wonder if this would-be decent distraction. “Are you headed home?”

“Sure,” Isabel muttered. “Although Kyle is having a poker game with his old friends from work,” she sighed as she did not know if she wanted to deal with this on a night like this when there was so much unnerving in all this.

“Why don’t you stay for awhile and talk it over with Maria and I” Michael sighed.

“You’ve been busy?” Isabel sighed. “You could use some time alone with your wife and kids?”

“Given that the kids are causing worries every single day, we both could use the distraction,” Michael muttered as he remembered how Maria had told him of Amelia’s ride with Zack. The last thing he wanted was his teenage daughter to go for the unknown, and the mysterious when he knew how much risk Maria had taken on him, and against the odds they had made it.

“They will make it at the end of the day,” Isabel smiled.

“Let’s hope so,” Michael smiled.

*

It was a couple of hours later when she was making her way home after spending some quality time with Michael and Maria and having dinner with them and the kids. Amelia and Alex took diversion in the visit as a way to get out of any serious talks they knew their parents wanted to have with them, and Amelia knew she was likely going to be on the receiving end one of these hours. So, she took Isabel’s visit as diversion., “Thanks for everything, call me tomorrow with what you find out Michael.”

“I will,” Michael nodded as they watched as she left the house and started the journey home.

“Do the two of you really think there was someone other than Kal out there all this time,” Maria muttered as she was surprised to hear about someone named Serena up at the prison posing as a guard once the door was closed, and locked. “That would seem to me to be pretty unbelievable?”

“When has anything been believable in this tale?” Michael muttered as he thought of their lives spinning out of control. “But I will deal with it tomorrow, so how are our other worries? Has Amelia talked anything more about earlier?”

“Nope,” Maria muttered as she thought of her daughter. “All she has said it was simple ride home because she was running late for meeting Olivia. So, I do not know what to think and she does indicate Greg is coming for a visit next month, in time for her birthday”

“Sixteen,” Michael muttered as he hated having to root for any guy in this race but because they knew Greg, and didn’t know Zack, and Zack was too old for Amelia much too old, “Can we stop time, and prevent that from happening?”

“It’s too late for Alex,” Maria muttered. “Let’s just hope sixteen doesn’t go anything like it did for us.”

“Let’s hope so,” Michael sighed as they went back into the kitchen to clean up as they both reflected on their journey.

*

Across town Kyle’s poker game was finishing up with him being the winner for a change. He was looking forward to going back to the high school in the fall if the job came through because with the girls getting older and now in school full time. He needed something out of the house to deal with, and so he looked forward to these nights with his old friends. So, as he cleaned up the mess, they had made during the game so that he did not leave it to his wife who grew very annoyed when she was forced to act as clean up. Which is why he supposed she was delayed coming home. When she did come home, he hoped they could use the advantage of having the kids at their grandparents for the night when there was a knock on the door, and he was surprised to find someone familiar at the door.

“Phillip,” Kyle smiled as he glanced at his father-in-law Phillip Evans at the doorway. “Come in, but I didn’t expect you. So, you should know your daughter isn’t home yet?”

“Late night at work,” Phillip asked. “Which would be a surprise because I stopped at the office, but she wasn’t there?” as he entered the house and looked around and saw no kids rushing around. “The kids?”

“At my parent’s place for a sleep over, and a guy’s poker game just finished up. Which is why I think Isabel was delaying coming home from wherever she is. So, she does not have to help clean up,” Kyle laughed, and Phillip smiled. “Although I suspect she was over at Michael and Maria’s because I know that is where she was headed when we talked earlier,” Kyle saw the confusion on his father-in-law’s face. “What’s up, can I help you?”

“I am just confused by what is going on these days in this family?” Phillip admitted as they walked into the house. “Diane had a friend stop by, and so I took the opportunity to come and spend some time with my daughter if you don’t mind the interruption?”

“Of course, and why don’t you join the club” Kyle smiled. “It’s nothing but confusion around here these days” he muttered. “I don’t know how much I can be of help because my lovely wife knows far more than I do on the matter.”

“Is it true that my daughter is helping free her brother, my son?” Phillip blurted out because something he had heard as he had talked with a former colleagues and added with the news of his grandson’s arrival in town, well, it was causing quite a spin session for Phillip and he had come to the source.

“How did you find out?” Kyle murmured as he knew the last thing his wife would want her parents to get their hopes up if that hope was going to in the end be extinguish which is why he hated it for Isabel’s sake because he knew she was getting her hopes up, and from his own experience he doubted the government was going to allow them to end.

“A former colleague,” Phillip muttered.

“Anyone we know?” Kyle asked lightly.

“No,” Phillip shook his head of his son-in-law’s assumption of him talking to his former son-in-law who had been a partner at one time before his relocation and entering politics. “Jesse is happy with his life and has moved on.”

“I am glad,” Kyle smiled. “And I know my wife is also…”

“I know,” Phillip nodded as it was a tricky situation. “So, is it true?” he asked. “Is Isabel reopening her brother’s case?”

“Why don’t you ask her yourself,” Kyle said softly as they both heard the slam of the door and then moments later Isabel entering the room and was surprised to see that her father had come for a visit. “Honey?”

“Dad?” Isabel asked as surprise was evident in her face at seeing her father. She had not expected this when she got home. She had expected to see a mess or a bunch of guys still playing poker. She knew her husband valued the games, and she was not one to discourage any ability for her husband to want a life outside of dealing with their children. She knew she had gotten lucky with her husband taking on the rearing of their children, while she could work “Is everything okay, with you and Mom?”

“Oh, everything is fine” Phillip assured as he knew he was surprising his daughter with his visit. But he could not wait and had come to get some answers. “Your mother had a friend visiting, and so I took the opportunity to come and visit my grandchildren. Did you have a nice visit with Michael and Maria?” he asked. “You missed quite the game I am told?”

“Which is why I stayed away,” Isabel laughed. “How much did you lose this time?”

“I won the pot in the end,” Kyle smiled. “So, don’t worry because I didn’t bet the farm.”

“I am glad,” Isabel smiled as she came in for a hug with her father. “So, what brings you here tonight?”

“I wanted to check to see why you were reopening your brother’s case?” Phillip asked.

Jeez, Isabel sputtered because the last thing she had wanted to do was get her parents involved until they knew for sure they had a chance to win this battle otherwise the pain would be immense for her parents as they almost did not make it through her brother’s original trial, and conviction, and she did not want to revisit that time for them. “Dad”

“Tell me the truth Isabel, are you looking to reopen your brother’s case?” Phillip asked.

“Yes,” Isabel said simply.

“Why, because he confessed,” Phillip stumbled and mumbled to himself. “And to top it off, honey, he was convicted” Phillip asked. “Why are you
doing this to yourself?”

*

Why were they even trying, and his conviction was a fact everyone involved knew as Liz was sharing dinner with her daughter and could see the teenager was preoccupied and knew the many factors that could be contributing to the moodiness of her daughter. She had her own preoccupation with events but given she knew stress was not good for her daughter Liz decided to ask the dreaded question. “Honey, are you okay?”

“Fine,” Olivia muttered softly as she picked at her dinner. Not because she did not like the food, because it was her favorite pizza with lots of tabasco sauce. Liz had learned how to make homemade pizza. The one thing she could do with some success as cooking hadn’t been a priority over the years as when Olivia was younger, well, they spent most of their time at the Crashdown for dinner, in the restaurant or having dinner with Jeff and Nancy so Liz just didn’t get into cooking much, but she had learned enough to be able to make pizza, and it was good because she could make a spicy one for her daughter since her daughter was all Max with her taste buds, and tamer versions for her, and anyone who came and visited.

“Honey,” Liz murmured. “You shouldn’t be stressing yourself out…”

“I am actually fine in that regard,” Olivia muttered as that situation while it was out of her control was something she could control quite well. “I know I have to take it easy, and I am, and I know it doesn’t look like it…”

“Can you really control it when I know did have an emotional experience today with your father?” Liz asked.

Olivia murmured something quietly that her mother could not quite hear.

“Are you okay with it?” Liz asked. “Isabel seemed to think it went well but you have not wanted to talk much about it since you got home, so how was your visit?” she murmured because she saw the tears in her daughter’s eyes. “Oh honey, what’s wrong?”

“It’s not fair,” Olivia muttered as she thought back to memories of her father, and his bruised face. “Why does he have to be there?” she sighed. “In that building?” she murmured. “We get to live our lives, but he doesn’t, and he’s stuck there. Mom, it’s not fair”

“No, it’s not” Liz agreed.

“Why did he have to confess?” Olivia cried.

[totallizfan]

I'm glad Michael is going to talk to Max.
I wonder if Michael will meet Serena when he visits the prison.
Can't wait for Liz to hear the name Serena.

[keepsmiling7]

Michael now knows about Serena.
Olivia is concerned about her father......she can't understand why he had to confess.
Isabel is a big challenge ahead of herself.

[Parker1947]

Why did he have to confess? Liz asked her that every day and most days she knew it was to protect them and to protect the unknown from occurring and it got them through the hours each day knowing that Max had made the ultimate sacrifice to save them. It would have been easy to give them Tess or a stranger. But they were coming after them and they were close to catching them and exposing their secret.

A secret that had taken a blow with the mayhem of graduation. They barely got out of there before bullets would have flown as Michael was their savior that day. Not graduating, he had taken the lead in leaving town before common sense prevailed and he had sensed trouble and come back and gotten them out, and by then if they had not known it before. They needed to leave town. Michael and Maria reunited their turbulent relationship, and Kyle listless in his own life but not on the hit list had elected to come with hem. As they knew they had to get out of town. Being on the road had worked for a short time but they knew all hell was breaking loose back in Roswell as the government had to explain why they had armed a high school graduation with weapons and were going after four unarmed teenagers. They explained that they were believed to have some connection in the army base explosion, and from the evidence they had found at the Evans home with the videotape of Isabel’s bedroom scene that there was belief that they were not human.

The media laughed it off as not believable, and only certain people did believe it. Those especially close to the teenagers who had vanished into thin air. She had sent the diary and it reached her father, and he got an eye full of her adventures with Max. For a moment Jeff Parker was grateful to Max Evans for saving his daughter’s life than word of the gang being cornered the day after the wedding. Jeff did not know what to believe. Liz could understand his reluctance. She sensed if it were her own daughter, yeah, she would have questions. Now that she was a parent, she could relate but of course her journey into parenthood came with some special roots.

She might be able to relate. But back then, she still would have gone to hell and back with Max. She was in with him for the long haul. She still was. Because the government had suspicions on to what Isabel was and well, there was early suspicion that they were their killer and army base bomber. Since they were looking for a blonde. Max could feel the heat on them and knew if they got any of them than then who knows what might be revealed. Their safety was at stake. If their secret were revealed than the world would look at them differently and the world did not take to be different. Not in 2002, and especially not today!

So, he confessed. Initially the government was skeptical and were ready to send him on his way but then learned about Vermont once the private school learned of his confession, and they revealed their own surveillance tapes, and a picture was formed, and he was taken to trial. With added related to Vermont. Horrified by the suspicion. She refused to testify, and Maria lied on the stand about allegations involving her, and Liz was determined to stand by her man. She lost him once to death. She knew what it meant to lose him, and she did not want to go through that again. Once Jeff and Nancy learned of Vermont; their feelings about Max changed.

She tried to tell them they did not know the full story. But the videotape found of their flight out the window told a story, and a story that Olivia believed once she learned of it too. She supposed she was crazy to love a man capable of such things, and she knew of other crimes too, which she never told a soul about, but she knew she saved by Max and knew he would never want to hurt her. So, she was determined to stand by him even when she was married in name only and on paper and had a daughter to support.

“Mom?” Olivia asked as she saw that her mother had gone into space again or some trance that often happened when she thought of her father as she tried to wipe the tears. “I didn’t mean to get you upset?”

“I am not upset,” Liz murmured and knew the years had lessen the hurt in her heart as she knew her daughter’s tears were not strictly because of her father, but due to other matters, ones they did not want to talk or discuss. It was hell of a burden to be a daughter of someone in prison, and to know she had to grow up having a ghost for a father, until recently. Meeting the real man was quite the experience, and for her mother, it means a reminder of a time that was hard to experience the first time, and now to have to remember it “It was a hell of a time and it’s painful to even think about it now…”

“Why couldn’t he have broken out of that place and come home to us?” Olivia muttered. “We could have gone somewhere, anywhere that wasn’t here?” she muttered. “We would have been together?”

“He didn’t want that for me honey. We tried it when we had to learn in the wake of graduation and everything that happened on that day. It is not an easy life to lead. To know the burden of what the world thought of us, and especially him after what the media was reporting. He confessed to save us. If we were on the run, and with you… It would have caused a lot more pain, and to leave our families and Michael and Maria, and everyone. It would have been the last resort, and no life to want to live?”

“Yeah,” Olivia muttered as she could see it. She did not like it. But she could see it.

“Yeah,” Liz smiled. “Your father confessed to protect us. Think about the life we would have been living if we ran, always looking over our shoulders. There was little we could have done, and it would not have been a life you would have wanted to live. No abilities to have friends, because we would have been likely to have to be on the move often, and you would not have even known your grandparents. You would not have known Alex and Amelia growing up, or your cousins when Isabel became a parent. Of course, there many of a day where I wished he could have done that or we could have broken him out like we did when he was kidnapped,

“But that would have made everything worse?” Olivia muttered.

“Yes,” Liz admitted. “They would have been looking for us, and that would have put everyone back here in the danger too. People would be looking at them and wonder what they knew if they knew anything.”

Olivia sighed.

“I wish I could have given you the life every girl dreamt of with a mother and father who could be there for you everyday, and I am sorry I couldn’t give that to you. Your father made a sacrifice for me, and even though she did not know until last week about you, well, he made one for you too, so that you could be made possible. I know it’s not fair to see him in that place and know what you missed.”

“No, it’s not” Olivia muttered as she remembered her father in that place. She knew she had many conflicting feelings of the man, and she had not yet truly reconciled the many images of the man, but still it hurt to know she had a father, and he could not be in her daily life because he was stuck behind cement walls.

Liz sighed because she was coming to see why Max had kept them away because at least she could raise her daughter without the pressure of knowing Max was in prison. While Olivia did know, still, the pressure was larger now that Olivia had met the man, and knew who he was, and the kind of person he was, which was in conflict with the media’s interpretation of the events. “Which is why your father kept us away because he didn’t want that image burning in your head. Because life in there is not pleasant, and he didn’t want you growing up with that image for a father.”

“But I did because I knew he was in prison?” Olivia muttered.

“You only knew when you became old enough to ask questions and to wonder. Until then you only knew he could not be there, and then when you came of age to know, you did not really know what it meant to have a father in prison. You did not see him, so you did not have the image of that in your mind so you could imagine him anywhere other than where he is. You did not have the know the truth.” Liz murmured.

“Because you didn’t tell me?” Olivia asked.

“I was protecting you, and just like your father was protecting us by keeping us away” Liz murmured.

“Some protection,” Olivia murmured.

“Yes, it was” Liz murmured because that had been the one thing she had been right about. Protecting her daughter had been her duty as a parent, and she did not regret it because she did not want her daughter’s life to be any more difficult than it was already. “You were better off not knowing until you were old enough to know what it all means, but I do know what it means to have not seen him because I didn’t see him either until last week. It sucks, and it is a whole new world for the both of us” she sighed. “And the future is uncertain.”

*

And to Isabel as she saw the confusion on her father’s face and knowing the future was unknown, but she wanted to try to get her brother back in their lives. She knew her parents felt a tremendous amount of guilt over their actions back when her brother was a senior in years. A year defined by some very rocky times between parents and son. Because Max was not willing to tell them the truth about who they were to their parents despite their parents having suspicions and were catching onto small things that were started to accumulate despite their kids believing they were oblivious to all their actions. And then when Max and Liz screwed up royally by robbing a convenience store in Utah, and that set off the alarms in their parents head big time, and it led to Max still being resistance in being honest and so he finally moved out. And she responded marrying Jesse despite their relationship being young, and her new fiancé and later husband not knowing the real her.

It got Phillip to formally launch an investigation into their kids. Learning and asking questions. And despite being unwilling to answer them, Phillip was able to gain a lot of intelligence when they found out the reality that their parents had overheard quite a bit, and certainly more than they had ever thought they had, and that eventually led to a showdown with their kids especially once they put a videotape in her childhood bedroom and tricked her to spending the night to gain intelligence. What they learned blew their minds, and they were forced to tell the truth just as all hell cut loose with Tess’s return.

In the resulting mayhem after Tess’s carnage at the army base that resulted by her return. Something they could blame on Tess because that time she really had killed people. The resulting presence of the FBI invaded their worlds, and their parent’s home and they found the videotape, and had evidence. And then they would learn all that Phillip knew because he had not had time to get rid of his board of suspicion in his office.

It led to the government have a lot on Max, and all of them to be honest with you and therefore to confess, Max was taking a lot of pressure off their backs. But it gave them an easy pass, while he went down for it. And her parents never forgave them for not trusting their kids. Isabel did not blame or hate her parents for it. Because like Liz. She knew they had been suspicious, and they were their parents and they only wanted to know the truth.

They just did not know the world that their kids really were trying to survive in.

“Dad” Isabel said softly as she saw the pain on her father’s face whenever he was forced to think of his son who he had not been able to see in nearly seventeen years. She knew Liz allowing her parents into Olivia’s life had helped them immensely because they had someone to love in Olivia, but she also knew it only made them think of her brother, and what they had done all the more. Thankfully, she could be honest with her father. As their parents knew all the warts unlike the Parkers who only knew as much as the diary and their daughter and granddaughter were willing to tell them.

“Honey, you are setting yourself up for I don’t know, but it can only be a lot of hurt” Phillip murmured as thinking of what his daughter was planning was confusing and his experience with the government told him that they wouldn’t want to lose or allow Max to come home.”

“I know what I am setting myself up for Dad,” Isabel murmured because to undertake this mission, well, she did have to make peace that she would be in the end, defeated, and they would not win, and Max would stay where he had been for the last sixteen years, behind bars. She at least had to try and said as much to her father. “But I have to try, don’t I?”

“You have to know you won’t succeed?” Phillip asked because even as he wanted his son back in their life, well, he knew there was little chance of success. He knew to be given hope made it even more hurtful in the end when it failed, and Max stayed where he was currently residing. Phillip knew his daughter and knew the disappointment she would feel if she failed in the end, and he felt guilty for not trusting his kids, and thinking the idea would fail. “Please, don’t think I don’t want your brother…”

“I know Dad,” Isabel murmured as he saw the emotion on her father’s face and had seen it on both of her parents for the last nearly two decades, and she could not bare to know what failing would mean. She was not stupid that it would weigh on her, but she knew what it would mean to her parents, to lose the hope, and to fail. “I know you do want him home and that is why I didn’t want to tell you until I knew more, and seriously Dad, it is only the beginning, so I don’t know if we are going to have any success in their endeavor but since Olivia’s visit last week. Things have changed…”

“How have they changed?” Phillip asked.

“We have learned some stuff, and it makes us wonder if we can get Max’s confession overturned?” Isabel murmured.

“Honey, you can’t revoke a confession?” Phillip murmured.

“Yes, you can,” Isabel said. “I grant you it is hard, and we need proof that he didn’t commit the crime?”

“Your brother had to assure the judge that he knew the consequences of a confession and that he was being truthful in his statement to authorities?” Phillip murmured. “They aren’t going to take him trying to set it aside all these years later?”

“Dad, Max wasn’t guilty. He was far away from the army base when it exploded. He was in his apartment, surrounded by his friends and with the baby in his life. He was no where near it, and I grant that is not hard evidence to give to a jury or a judge to overturn. We know Liz drove Tess to the army base. But she cannot 100 % guarantee that Max did not follow her. She also could be said to be lying to protect him, and because of her anger at Tess…”

“You say it yourself, there is no evidence?” Phillip murmured. “Tess is dead. And the baby was too young to know that his biological mother was capable…”

“We also don’t know if it was Tess” Isabel allowed.

“Excuse me,” Phillip asked because he could not believe it. “You have said for years you believed it was Tess?” Phillip murmured as he thought of the certainty in his daughter’s declarations over the year that the blame was all on Tess and not her brother. Phillip and Diane did not know what to think, and because they did not know everything that their kids did, so they believed them, and they had the sense from meeting the girl that Tess back when they were in high school had an agenda. Diane was often fooled but the times he saw the girl, he saw someone who was clearly knew what she was doing.

“We know, because we know Liz drove Tess to the army base, and she saw the explosion minutes later. It was an easy conclusion to come to… But we now have a new suspect that we didn’t was possible back years ago, but unfortunately, he is also dead and therefore it’s going to be hard to nail him for it?” Isabel allowed as he wanted the curse their luck. “So, Dad I do know it might be a fool’s quest to get my brother out of there, but I have to try. We can’t not try can we,” she sighed. “If we did give up, and this pans out than we will have a life of regrets, and we already have enough of them”

“Who is this new suspect?” Phillip asked because despite his wife and his knowledge of their children’s secret life. Still, it was hard to reconcile it from the lives they had raised and believed they had known. To know there was this whole other world that their kids had inhabited was strange and frightening at times to know how lucky their daughter was still there to be there, and same with their son but he was lost to them at the moment and of course he knew of regrets, he had plenty of them, and guilt and he didn’t think he could ever rid himself of the shame of helping the government put his son in prison.

“Kal Langley?” Isabel muttered.

“Who is that?” Phillip muttered.

“Someone you wouldn’t know, and Michael and I don’t really know him either, but someone who had a memorable run in with my brother and they didn’t leave a positive picture with each other by the end of their association” Isabel muttered. “He is someone who came to this planet with us, and for most of our lives we didn’t remember or know him. He didn’t make his presence known until Max was in his senior year and was looking for his son?”

“So, you think he had it out for your brother enough to make him pay?” Phillip asked.

“Yes, it would have been a fun bonus for him,” Isabel muttered. “Our working theory and it could change as we gain more information is that he came to town to clean up Tess’s mess because she was national news, and the search for her was playing on television nationwide, and he couldn’t have it as it didn’t work for our live-in plain sight routine we were settled into. So, he came to clean up the mess, and didn’t know what he was setting off…”

“That the government would be gunning you guys?” Phillip muttered. “And find that other evidence?”

“Yes,” Isabel muttered. “Look Dad, I know how it is for you and Mom and that is why I didn’t want to bring you into this until we knew more and had more a sense of what kind of outcome we were looking at. We are taking baby steps. It might not lead to anything, and we might have to abandon it. But Max does want us to look into it?”

“He does?” Phillip asked as he thought of his son.

“Yes,” Isabel muttered. “Olivia’s visit made him see what stakes he has out here in the real world. None of us know whether it will work out, and as you said, the government is going to make it hard for us, and they have already started to flex their muscle and make things hard for my brother, but we have to try. Because seventeen years is too long to be in prison for something he didn’t do?”

“They didn’t just convict him on those charges?” Phillip muttered.

“And he would be out by now if it was strictly on those charges,” Isabel muttered. “We’re not going to be able to convince them to overturn his conviction because we can only deal with what we can deal with. But any other person would have been out by now if it were only those charges, he dealt with….”

Phillip nodded. “Does Liz support this?”

“Of course,” Isabel smiled. “Dad, we would never do anything if Liz didn’t want it and my brother wouldn’t want us to, and if he wouldn’t want to hurt his wife, and would stay there if e believed Liz wanted him to, but we are beginning to believe that now is the time, and we are hopeful we can make some headway.”

“I hope you do,” Phillip murmured, and Isabel could only pray they could make headway, and it would not lead to disappointment as she felt for her parents. “And what is this about Max’s son being back in town?”

“Oh god,” Isabel murmured as she did not know how to handle this one too. Even if it was easier to getting her brother out of a federal prison.

“Did you know this?” Phillip asked.

“Yes,” Isabel confirmed. “He’s on a quest into his origins and all that and he’s come to town in the last week or so…” she sighed. “It’s all seems too easy but none of it easy by any means, and it’s all too complicated. “We don’t know what it will lead to, but at least we have to try to see if we can win this battle and bring Max home to his wife and daughter.

Phillip nodded as he felt a great degree of foreboding because despite it being his greatest wish for his son to come home again but he had seen what the dust up with the government in the wake of the army base explosion did to his family, and did to his daughter and didn’t want the pain to come back because they had lost his son once, and he didn’t want them to lose again, and this time, it would be even more painful if they lost him again…

*

“Yes, I am still in Roswell,” Zack was saying the phone. “I don’t see myself leaving yet because there is still so much, I don’t know about this place” he admitted. “I don’t know what all the pieces mean yet, but I am definitely keeping my eyes open” he sighed as he looked out the window of his motel room and went and sat down. “No Mom, I don’t know when I am coming home,” he murmured. “Yes, I know I should be preparing for graduation. But I am not, because this is my life now. I have finally reached the destination I was looking for, and so no, I am not leaving to come home now that I am here in New Mexico…Come on Mom, I do want to see you and Dad and see Helena but this where I need to be for now, so, once again, no, I am not coming home,” he murmured as he could tell his mother didn’t understand this quest of his. Most days he did not know why he would stay. “You do not have to worry about me, okay?”

Because Zack wanted to leave this place every day, with the more he was finding out about the origins that had created him, but something was drawing him to stay here when he could easily go home, with the knowledge that he knew who his biological parents were, and that they had made the best decision they could have at time, and he had something right with his family back in New York, but his gut told him to stay as he returned to his conversation with his mother. “No, I haven’t talked to Jennifer, so if you talk to her, tell her I am fine, and return my email” he sighed. “Yes, I know what I am doing…” he sighed as he knew that his mother wish he would come back to New York and stop his road trip. “I am finally getting somewhere, so I am not leaving…” he muttered as there was a knock on the door. “No, I have not met my biological father, because it is hard to get permission to see him, but I have met his wife, and his daughter. Yes, I have a half sister. Olivia,” he admitted as he walked to the door and opened it and was surprised. “Wow” he mumbled. “Mom, I have to go” he muttered as he hung up.

“Hello stranger?” came the smile at the door.

“What are you doing here?” Zack asked with stunned glance at his visitor. “I have been trying to reach you for days.”

“I had to drive here from school,” said the woman at the door. “Flights would have cost a fortune, so, are you going to ask me in?” she said as Zack allowed his girlfriend to come into his motel room.

“Yeah, come in,” Zack said as Jennifer Williams smiled as she leaned into kiss her boyfriend. “I have missed you…”

“So, have I” Zack murmured.

“So, this is some town you have managed to find yourself in. Have you met any aliens yet?” as she started to laugh, and Zack didn’t start laughing…

“What, did I say something?”

[keepsmiling7]

Can the confession be over-turned??
Isabel tells her dad of the new suspect.
Zack's girlfriend shows up........
The intrigue continues.

[totallizfan]

So much upset and turmoil.
Trying to blame someone other then Max (after 16yrs) is going to be difficult.
I hope Isabel comes up with a brilliant plan.
Is Jennifer going to be a problem?
Thanks for the update!

[Parker1947]

It was a few days later when Zack and Jennifer exited his motel room for the first time since her arrival except for get take-out or the odd errand. Jennifer was a university student at Columbia and was on Spring Break and drove out this way on a lark to find her boyfriend because the last time they had seen each other was in El Paso, Texas at Christmas, and now he was in New Mexico, and a small town and it did mystify Jennifer why Zack would want to stick around this small town. All Zack said was it was where he was born. She had known he was adopted. And had been on this quest since he turned sixteen, but with her concentrating on her studies, they had drifted apart but stayed together, and now he was on the run and had been since the prior summer. She knew his parents did not approve of his running away. So, he came to figure out what was going on before she had to back to classes. “This is some town,” Jennifer smiled as they sat in the Crashdown having lunch as the door opened and Olivia and Amelia walked in, and both frowned at Zack at the table, and especially when Jennifer leaned in for a kiss. Sighing, he did not say anything, and they did not approach. They went to their table that Jeff Parker came rushing over, and they all tried to ignore each other. Except Jennifer spotted the tension on her boyfriend’s face. “Who were they?”

“Olivia Parker and Amelia Guerin” Zack said softly as he saw the girls taking a booth but Amelia looking back at him and Jennifer.

“And they would be?” Jennifer asked.

“Olivia is my half sister. We share the same father,” Zack muttered to Jennifer’s surprise. “Yeah. Amelia is her best friend” he mumbled. “I didn’t know about Olivia until I came to this town…”

“So, this town isn’t just where you were born?” Jennifer asked as she was sensing why this place was special. “You have family here?”

“In some ways,” Zack muttered. “But they don’t want to treat me as family,” he muttered although he knew was Amelia was the friendlies person he had met, and he was not going to admit that to Jennifer because she had the tendency to be jealous. “She lives with her mother, as our father is out of the picture.”

“In prison?” Jennifer asked because she had done research because Zack had not wanted to talk much about his biological father. “She doesn’t look too much younger than you are?”

“Yeah,” Zack muttered, “She’s sixteen” he sighed. “Her mother was my biological father’s high school girlfriend. He stepped out on her to be with my biological mother, and presto I was born, and he eventually went back to his girlfriend, and my biological mother was killed in an explosion. I was put up for adoption, and they got married, and he was arrested for the explosion that caused the death of my biological mother, an incident to which he confessed. Olivia came to be born months later. Apparently, our father didn’t know about her until recently.”

“Wow,” Jennifer wondered. “That is some biography?”

“It is,” Zack allowed. “They don’t care about my birth mother too much…”

“Why?” Jennifer asked.

“They say she started the circumstances that led to my biological father’s arrest” Zack muttered. “Are you sure you want to be here in this town?”

“Are you crazy. I am fascinated,” Jennifer murmured as she took his hand and Amelia noticed as across the room Olivia and Amelia were on their lunch period from school and they stopped in for a burger, which was Olivia’s cravings these days. Amelia just wanted to get out off school premises. They had not expected to see Zack having lunch because he had not been around much in recent days and they both had some thought that maybe he had split town because he found out too much that he did not want to know.

But now, he was there, and it was evident he was with some red head, and they seemed to be involved. Olivia wondered if it was the mysterious girlfriend, who looked older than Zack and they seemed to be close. Amelia was disturbed by it, as she played with her fries. “Any clue who that red head is?”

“Nope,” Olivia shook her head as she poured tabasco sauce on the already spicy burger, and then on the fries. “Maybe it is the girlfriend?”

“He has a girlfriend?” Amelia asked interested.

“He hasn’t said much about her. So, I figured it was all some myth of a figure to get out of the questions about his intentions around her friend, but I guess she really exists” Olivia sighed. “Jealous, are we?”

“Are you kidding?” Amelia laughed. “Of course, not…”

“I sense you are,” Olivia muttered as she was thinking of how her mother was in court with her aunt trying to get access to her father. Alone time. She did not know how that was going to end up, and she was worried for her mother. So, she was indulging on spicy fries to get away from the emotions of the day. “Obviously, he has someone he’s with, and you have Greg”

“Yes, I have Greg, and I am not looking” Amelia murmured. “I am not looking for drama.”

“You might not be looking, but you can’t help but find it if you’re not too careful” Olivia muttered.

*

Meanwhile Isabel and Liz were in judge’s chambers trying to get the judge to green light an unsupervised visitation with her husband. An overnight one would be even better. They were right, the government was pitching a fight and was trying to get the judge to deny the request as Isabel knew Michael was now up at the prison trying to figure out what was going on with this Serena Scott person. Michael had not been able to get up until now, and Isabel had taken time to get a judge to take her motion. The judge decided to meet in chambers to keep the sensitive nature out of the motion out of the press. Despite it being long over. Still the media liked to report on the case, and they did not want it to get out in the press until they had to deal with. “I am not one to want to meddle in a marriage?” the judge was saying. “Why shouldn’t I allow Ms. Parker to see her husband. Clearly, she wants to see him, and Ms. Evans is telling me that the prisoner wants to see his wife?”

“He stands convicted of crimes involving his wife?” The government lawyer responded. “He’s a violent offender.”

“She doesn’t hold it against her husband and has chosen to stay married to him and she was a right to visit with her husband and allow them time to spend together however they see fit for however they want to see each other” Isabel muttered as she and Liz both knew there were another story to the Vermont debacle, but one they could not let get out. “She’s with me today because she wants to see her husband?”

“Your honor. My husband would never willingly hurt me,” Liz murmured. “He would die if he had. There is a side of the story that has not been told but it is one that we want to keep to our selves. My husband did not hurt me and no, I am not some deluded abused wife” she muttered as she glared at the snickering prosecutor. “I love him, and I have stayed married to him because I do love him, and he was good man and that has not changed. Yes, we had ours ups and downs just like any other couple and all I can say is the governments case was all based on a videotape that was tampered with and doesn’t show the full story.”

“The judge at the time allowed it to be used” the government lawyer muttered. “Clearly Ms. Parker is excusing her husband for his crimes?”

“Which is in her right. It is also her right to think whatever she wants,” Isabel muttered. “Mr. Evans wants to be able to see his wife, and at the moment, he’s behind cement walls and he is not going to do anything to hurt her?”

“How are we sure?” the government lawyer asked. “He hurt her once before. And brainwashed her to such an extent that she did not testify because he married her before he was caught?”

“My client confessed. He was not caught,” Isabel muttered, “They were married before he was arrested. When they married. Neither of them knew what would transpire. He has a right to want to see his wife, and if his wife wants to see him, then we should give them that opportunity. She was not brainwashed. It is the ability of anyone to decide whether they will testify or not. She chose not to. And yes, because of their marriage. She did not have to, and she would have seen him before now except he chose to keep her away, but he now has had a chance of heart, and he now wants to see her” she sighed as she thought of what her brother had to put up over these years. “My client has had a spotless record while in federal custody.”

“I understand you are moving to reopen his case?” the judge asked. “That there might be a change in the confession. Is there some reason to think there has been a change in the case?”

“It’s only in the opening stages your honor, and I am not ready to comment on whether it will move to a formal stage, but until something comes from it. My client wants to be able to spend time with his wife. He loves her, and they want the ability to see each other…”

“If she wants to see him. And he wants to see her,” the judge muttered as she glanced over at the determination on Liz’s face. The face told everything, and it said that she did love him, and wanted to see him, and the judge knew it “Then I will allow it. One visitation. Which can be during the day, or an overnight. Camera’s will be present Ms. Parker, so if you feel unsafe?” the judge murmured. “If you choose an overnight. Camera’s can be turned off at a time of your choosing…”

“I will be completely safe,” Liz murmured I can see Max, thank god

“We will reassess after the visit takes place to know whether any other can be scheduled,” the judge ruled. “I am doing this partly because I am not liking what I am hearing about the prison’s treatment of this prisoner,” the judge muttered. “I am told that he was place in isolation without cause, and he was roughed up, and none of the guards interceded” the judge asked. “And might have even helped. Mr. Rosen, you might think he doesn’t have rights but he’s human being and deserves whatever any other person is guaranteed.”

“I wasn’t aware of any rough treatment?” the lawyer muttered.

“Then keep them in line and keep yourself informed” the judge muttered. “Otherwise, I might be more lenient to any motion to reassess his case, do you hear me?” she murmured. “Because yes, he was convicted of crimes involving his wife, but he would he been long released if those had been the only charges. And we cannot judge a marriage do you hear me? You might have your own opinions but keep them to yourself and don’t interfere in the case unless there is genuine fear of danger.”

“Yes, your honor” the lawyer admitted as he glanced over at the elation in Isabel and Liz who were thrilled with the turn of events and it made Isabel think they might have a chance in the end.

“Then I’ll leave it to the parties, to decide on any arrangements” the judge muttered as she ended the session and left the office.

“This isn’t the end,” the government’s lawyer muttered as they exited the chambers.

“You bet it won’t be,” Isabel muttered as she and Liz proceeded to chat about the details of the visit with the lawyer.

*

Michael meanwhile was up at the prison. The visit today was not to see Max who was in his cell. Michael wanted to find Serena. He knew it would be tricky, but he had not been able to get here before now because the guard had not been on duty all week but was on the schedule for today. “I am looking for someone named Scotti” Michael asked as he had been told of Serena’s nickname as in text messages Max was getting better at, he had told his childhood best friend that she was passing as a male guard. “I have some questions for him?”

“Why?” came the guard at security.

“A case I am working. Unrelated to any prisoner here at the prison,” Michael muttered as to not get this individual in trouble if they knew he was scouting for details related to Max. “I am private investigator, and he might have some relevant information for that case I am working. I was given a tip that it would be worth my while to talk to him,” he sighed. “Tell him that it is Michael Guerin, and he should know my name and want to see me. It won’t be long if I can see him as soon as possible.”

“Fine, I’ll ask.” The guard said calling into the prison and walking back to where Michael was stationed. “He’s not on break yet, so you’ll have to
wait.”

“Fine,” Michael muttered. “I can wait all day…” he sighed as he went to sit down and was prepared to wait if he needed to get some clarity to this situation. Why the hell did this person wait, this long to come help us?

*

“Are you kidding me?” Michael was muttering to him as he scanned his messages as he waited for this person who was masquerading as a prison guard to show her face. He had been following Isabel’s messages from her attempt to go against the government in their quest to get Liz an official visit with her husband. Isabel had been giving him the run down, of how the government was trying to make Max to be some harden criminal. Jeez Michael muttered and wanted to curse more profusely. But consideration of where he was made it impossible, as he waited for this Serena person. Sighing at the knowledge that they were still waiting for answers seventeen years into this drama. And Max was here because he had chosen to take the bullet for him, and for Isabel, all so they could start new lives with those they loved. While he took the brunt of it in this hell hole.

Max was the one who encountered the hornet’s nest as it was buzzing, while others might have taken cover. He actually engaged and took the brunt of the stings, for him, and for Isabel, all so they could get the fairy tale, while Max was denied seeing his daughter grow up, and loving his wife in any physical form besides his dreams. While he got to go home to his wife, and to his kids, and Max had been here. Hearing how the government was trying to make his brother out to be a harden criminal, when anyone else would have taken the brunt of it and learned to fight back while his friend had accepted his lot in life, and grinned and bared his decision to take the fall all the while he watched the days and years go by and barely made a fuss when he had the capabilities to try to get out of there or send word….

If he had wanted help. Given that they had helped once before, but no, he resisted the temptation and as a result Max had stayed in misery because he felt he deserved it.

So, Michael could not help but think about the weight of it as he waited, and waited, as it felt like an eternity and it did feel like he was being made to wait, for some purpose unknown to him when all he wanted was answers. He of course was used to waiting in the past, for one of those cases he tended to work, but this Scotti seem to be making a point by making him wait. Like they were wanting to annoy him.

And it was working. Michael was the kind of person who did not need much motivation to be annoyed, and so the irritation only grew. Finally, ready to make his own point, by leaving, a message popped up on his phone, and it was from an unknown number “Meet me at the Triple Buffalo Diner on the highway in 30 minutes. Don’t cause a fuss or ask anymore questions, or this meeting will be off, and your friend can sit and rot in prison for another seventeen years.”

Getting up without the fuss he was told not to make. Michael was not one to stay quiet, but knowing the stakes made it a necessity so he did get up, and without that fuss. Michael instead walked out of the prison and got into his car and started to drive the distance that Google told him would take him to the dining establishment. He had seen it on the way up to the prison, and so at least it would not be completely out of the way.

Making it with five minutes to spare. He walked into the greasy spoon that he knew attracted his wife back in the day. He may not have shown it at the time but his whole relationship with his wife was filled with these moments when it involved Maria. It still amazed him that she had accepted him for who he was and had not tried to change him. Sure, he had changed by the very nature that life did change you over the years, but she had not changed the core, and what made him who he had, and he appreciated it.

At the time he had not appreciated what he had, and thankfully he had not lost the chance when he so could have at any time because for most of his life, he had not believed he deserved happiness or Maria’s love. He had found his miracle in Maria and later in the birth of their son and daughter. Children he had not known he had wanted. If you had asked him at one time. He would have thought that he was too damage to want a wife, or children. Maria had changed that. He had been given a gift when Maria married him, and when their children; Alexander James and Amelia Elizabeth Guerin were born. He had not known he was capable of the happiness they had given him as a family. They had saved him.

While Max lost himself…

He knew he and Isabel felt guilty that they had not had to pay for what they had done wrong in this life And, we had done plenty wrong and yet it was the golden boy of their group who had taken the bullet for all of them. It was unfair.

But it was life.

Still, Max was not a saint, but he had not deserved his sentence in life when they all know if he had truly hurt Liz than he would have been dead, and there would be no saving his friend, but still, he had gotten Maria, and their kids. And Isabel had gotten happiness after disappointment with Kyle and their girls. While Max was behind bars and separated from his wife and daughter.

Max may have confessed sure, but he did not deserve the hell was in. So, Michael needed answers and he prayed this Scotti would give them to him. Years before Isabel began her crusade to get her brother out of prison. Nothing worked, and Michael had to see the disappointment on her face each time a tip did not work out as he also felt it himself, because it was not fair and therefore, now, when he felt they were getting somewhere, he was not prepared to be led down a false road.

So, it led Michael to wait for his anonymous as he wondered how they were going to get his friend out of hell. “Did you order?” came the words that would take him out of his time of reflection.

“What do you think?” Michael grumbled as he was joined by a strange with a hoodie on their head. Once they flipped it off their head, only to reveal a blonde with long flowy hair

“How do you fool them?” Michael asked as he tried form words, as his limited intelligence had told him that she had been passing for at least a couple of months now.

“Some people have a talent for it,” came the reply as they both engaged in a stare down and showdown because neither knew the other person, as they were a stranger to each other. “Michael Guerin, so we finally meet?”

“We do,” Michael conceded as he stopped his stared won as he tried to access his partner. “What are you up to?”

“Why do you think I must be up to something?” came the reply as Serena Scott took her own chance to access Michael. She did not have to go by Scotti in this place but could be her normal self for however long this endeavor would last. The assessment she was making of Michael was amusing to her of the fact Michael here on Earth had remade himself over as a wholesome family man. It had been shocking to discover that he was married with kids.

The image she was forming of Michael today was not the same as the one she knew of his life on Antar. But then she guessed this planet worked in mysterious ways. After all Max was in a prison cell. While rough and tumble Rath human identity was the family man of the group. When the opposite should be true. Yet it was not, and she had to make do with the situation they had now.

“This whole thing does not make much sense to me. Why are you coming out of the woods NOW of all times in seeking us out?” Michael muttered as he was irritated by this whole mess. “Why not before?”

“You didn’t need me before” Serena muttered in response.

“Bullshit,” Michael cursed. “Max has been in that hellhole all these years. Why have you not come and lifted a finger before now?” he grumbled and to Serena. Michael clearly was stung at the loss of his friend and brother in arms, someone who had kept him on the straight and narrow only to lose his own way off that road. Serena knew the anger was warranted, as if it were from the other side, she would see it, but she could only do what she could do, and she was here now…

“As they say ‘Life works by its own timetable’ Serena murmured in response to the irritation coming off Michael, and she knew her words did not make a difference. She knew she was absorbing their wrath against her by making this move. “We can’t pressure it to happen before it’s time,” she muttered as Michael glared at her and wasn’t buying her advertising slogan sayings “Do I have to remind you that your friend is the one who put himself where he is” she reminded Michael. “No one asked him to confess.”

“Given the government was after us, it was his only choice” Michael muttered as he gave the well-worn excuse for why his friend had taken the bullet for them.

“Was it?” Serena muttered.

“If he hadn’t, then they still would have come after us” Michael muttered. “Our whole livelihoods were at risk, and he took the fallout for us,” he groaned. “If you had been doing your job at all, then you have to know this, and where were you?”

Not ready to answer that question. “He did not have to surrender,” Serena answered. “Doing so was giving them what they wanted.”

“When you have people depending on you. You will make sacrifices if you love them. Max did it to protect us and we all know it. We were not asking him to but still he went and took the bullet for us, so that we did not get hit by it. You might think a fight is warranted and that is your right, but you were not living our lives. We were. If we had fought, then we might have lost a whole lot more because the fight does not always end the way you want it to” Michael muttered as he did not care for his friend’s motivations being questioned.

Sure, he might have the same ones, and wished his friend had not taken the route he had. But he was old enough to know Max had saved them from pain, and he had a chance to be with Maria and their kids, when the alternative could have very well happened, and the suffering would have been immense. “Why didn’t you show up before now?” he asked once again.

“I had to wait until the pieces were ready,” Serena answered.

“And it could not have been before now, and maybe if it had been seventeen years and if you have lifted a finger than it might have been of some help. Only doing it now, brings charges of being too late…” far too late

“Do you want my help or not?” Serena charged.

[totallizfan]

Go.. Isabel, Liz & Michael!
I hope Serena can help....finally.
Liz & Isabel seem to have the judge on their side.
Let's hope with all the people trying to help Max, the government doesn't find a way to squash it.
Now that Liz can visit, I hope it won't be long before Olivia & Zack can visit him together.

[keepsmiling7]

Great part.......interesting that Jennifer got Zack's biography.
It appears there will finally be a visitation allowed.
Meet at the Triple Buffalo Diner........can't wait for Michael to meet Scotti.
Now are all of the pieces ready???