Although she was already given a warning by school officials and her mother that she would be under a lot more supervision, and that people would know if she did not show up at school. Because her name was flagged to be on the search for any absences, and it would have been to be phoned in by her mother to be allowed to take place.
Mariah did not care, because she was able to head home. It had been a long couple of hours in lock up she thought. As she and her mother sat in the silence in the car, neither wanting to talk. About the elephant in the room.
Max…
Or what Mariah had done in the name of underage rebellion. Which Liz knew she could rage against given her own past. But her past was because of a larger cause, protection of Max and his safety, and knowledge of his heritage, and also solving a whodunnit she thought. It was not breaking into the school because I can, or on the orders of a rebellious gang of girls and their groupies, she thought. It was for me, to know more for Max’s sake, and to make sure Alex did not have his death linked to a cause that was not true. Liz now thought as finally, the car pulled into the driveway of their home, and Mariah was quickly out of the car and into the house before Liz could say anything.
But she did not have much to say because she did not know what to say. She had just gotten her daughter out of jail, where charges could have been easily assessed against her, and her daughter’s birthday was the following day, which meant she was getting older. Brady, I wish you were here she though and she felt guilty.
Because she remembered how it had been to walk in and see Max trying to get through to their daughter, and passion in his voice and the feeling of guilt she felt she heard in the tone about just what she had to go through in those days once she opened her eyes and looked in Max’s eyes and started to learn a whole unbelievable life.
Mariah had also seen it, and Liz knew it. Which is why it was hard to lecture her daughter. But she knew she had to be firm because she knew she could not let her daughter go down a route that did not have any winners at the end. As she opened the door and walked in with Mariah sitting by Lex on the couch.
“Sorry, we were gone long. Were you able to get something to eat?” Liz asked of her son because she knew her father had to get back to the restaurant and Maria had been busy, and therefore her daughter had to hang out at the house, alone. Which made think how different her children were from the life she had, over the Crashdown.
“Ordered pizza. Leftovers in the kitchen,” Lex said. “Used the money in the stash in the kitchen” he murmured because it was old practice from their life in Chicago to the early months of their stay in Roswell, and it made Liz remember how lucky it was for her to grow up in the walls of the Crashdown and when she was off, and parents were working. She did not really cook, but she just got one of the fry cooks to give her some food.
Which often worked.
“Good, that works for tonight,” Liz said distracted by what was going on. “Honey,” she said to her daughter and son. “But you might want to get used to going over to your grandparent’s restaurant, because tomorrow, I am going to see about you Mariah getting a job as a waitress,” she said and Mariah jaw dropped and Liz could almost smile because it made an impact, “It’s time you kept yourself busy so that we do not have a repeat of today’s events,” she murmured. “And you can make some money, and it can be whatever university will admit you with a suspension and probation on your record.”
“I do not want to go to university,” Mariah murmured, and Liz knew it was a lie. And partly it was, because Mariah had always talked about going to university, most notably Northwestern because that had been her parent’s school.
Although truthfully, Mariah did not know what she wanted to do or even who she wanted to be. Maybe yeah, I do not want to go to university? she asked of herself. “I want to travel.”
“Well, we will see what happens down the road, and you cannot travel without money,” Liz said softly. “Which I will not be giving you so you might as well earn some yourself because I was working from the time, I was a young teenager at your grandparent’s restaurant, and it gave me a lot of responsibility, and so maybe it’s time you took up the tradition. And Lex, when I am at work, you do not have to be at the house all the time, because you can be at the restaurant.”
“I cannot get upstairs,” Lex asked.
“If you can do it here, you can do it, but I figure you and your friends will be spoiling your dinner most of the time,” Liz said with a laugh. “Your grandparents will love it, and I know you two will be safe and sound because there will be no more repeats of today’s events do you hear me, Mariah?” Liz asked, and Mariah groaned, but did not fight back. “I know you hate me, and maybe you have some reason too, but I love you, and I want you to be safe and happy. You turn sixteen tomorrow, and that automatically makes you closer to being adult, and as you age, you will face consequences. Today could be worse off if we did not have the town Sheriff as a family friend. But I refuse to put any more pressure on him to give us special treatment because I know how much of a raw deal he got back when I was a teenager, and he got lucky in the end to be able to be back in his job. So, I will not be showing up anymore to bail you out of jail, do you hear me?”
“Yes, I hear you.” Mariah nodded.
“Good,” Liz said. “I am going upstairs to the office, to deal with some work as I am not in the mood for pizza, but you are stuck here tonight, okay?” she asked pointedly of her daughter. “No more going out.”
“Yes Mom,” Mariah murmured as Liz walked upstairs.
Leaving sister and brother to talk. To really talk because Alexander “Lex” Anthony was tired of being left out. Because he suspected that there was a lot, he did not know about my own family he thought. I might be younger, but it’s not like I am a baby he muttered to himself. And now he had his sister bailed out of jail, basically, although he had been told that Mariah had been released without having to go through actual bail procedures.
“Why do you hate Mom so much?” Lex asked as he saw his sister with pain behind her eyes, and knew it was something more than simply grief over their father.
“It is not really that important,” Mariah muttered as she turned around and walked back in the kitchen and opened the fridge and got out the leftover pizza. “Perfect,” she said as she turned to her brother, who had used crutches, with quite the power to come after her, into the kitchen. “You picked the perfect toppings this time.”
“I know you like it spicy,” Lex murmured. Way more than I do he thought which was odd in so many ways, because none of their family liked it as spicy and sometimes sweets as his sister did.
“Yes, I do” Mariah said taking the pizza over to the counter, and heat it up, and went back to the fridge for some tabasco sauce and laughed when she saw Lex’s response, because she knew there was much Lex does not know about me, she thought. Because she had not wanted to speak to it, and she barely could. Usually, her mother had to drag it out of her, or if someone else wanted to unload on her like what happened today, over at the Sheriff department.
“I am not a baby you know,” Lex muttered. “I am thirteen now, and I know a lot and experienced my fair share…”
“I know you have,” Mariah murmured because she knew because of the accident. Lex had gone through a lot of pain in those days, and most of it was unseen from both herself and their mother because he kept it behind the smiles, he would give to them when they would visit. And now he was home and was able to hide it and concentrate on other aspects of life.
“I am also not going to keel over,” Lex muttered. “I am not Dad, and I am not some fragile thing that you need to protect,” he said softly as he also had gotten a clean bill of health from the hospital right after the holidays he thought. He showed no signs at this time of the heart condition that his father, Brady had…
He might look like Brady.
But health wise, he was healthy. Although Liz was fearful that maybe one day the heart condition could make itself known, but there were no signs present that made Alex a candidate for the heart condition.
Brady had been the only one in their family from the looks of it now...
But Mariah now knew why she had gotten a clean bill of health. Because Dad is not my dad he thought. I am not a blood Anthony.
At least Lex is healthy, and it was not why she was not telling her little brother why things were tense in their family. She knew that her brother was too smart and knew something was off. Because it was not just grief that she was feeling, it more intense.
“I do not think you are fragile, far from it” Mariah muttered. “I do not know how I would have handled what you did after Dad’s accident.”
“It was nothing, because at least I had the chance to get better” Lex murmured. “I only wished Dad had gotten the chance…”
“Me too,” Mariah thought. Although she did not wish on what her father would have known after what happened in the wake of his death. The secrets that have come out…
“So, we have accepted the fact that I am not fragile or that I am not going to keel over, so, why not just tell me why not. Why do you ask like you do with Mom?” Lex asked as he was no stupid. He knew the looks between her mother and sister, and how tense it was in the house. Especially now that he was home from the hospital. “Tell me what is going on?”
“You are better off not knowing,” Mariah thought. As she wished she was still in the dark.
“I doubt I am,” Lex murmured. “It’s like you and Mom share this big secret and you will not tell me about it?” she muttered. “And I wish you will tell me otherwise I cannot help you if you will not talk to me, and I am sure it is not the end of the world, is it?”
“In some ways it is,” Mariah muttered. It is the end of the very life I had known until now.
“You are being overly melodramatic,” Lex muttered.
“You would not think that if you knew,” Mariah sighed.
“Then why will you not tell me?” Lex asked. “If it some deep dark family secret, are I not family, and should I not know?” he wondered.
“Fine,” Mariah muttered.
“Thank you,” Lex said. “All I want is for you and Mom to be happy because that is what Dad would have wanted for us, and I miss him too you know. You do not have the corner on the grief that we feel over losing Dad, because I feel it too, and I hate that he is not here, when he should be there for us…”
“Yes, he should be” Maria muttered. “But I am almost glad he is not than he would not have found out…”
“Why would you say that?” Lex asked. “What do you mean by those words?”
“Because Dad was not my biological father,” Mariah said softly, almost too softly and Lex could not almost hear those words, but they were heard, and his jaw dropped. I know, she moaned. “Dad was not my father. Mom was with someone else…”
“That is crazy,” Lex whispered. “Of course, you are Dad’s daughter,” he said. “Why would you think you were not,” he asked because he was aware of how close their father was with his sister, which made her grief natural, even if he wished she could move on, so the idea of Mariah not being his father’s father was stupid yeah stupid he thought as her words were sinking in. “Are you saying Mom had an affair?”
“No,” Mariah said softly. “I am not saying that” because she might have the best of relationships with her mother, but she knew for sure that her mother would not have cheated on their father, or my other Dad she thought.
“Then what are you saying?” Lex whispered. “Because it is craziness. Grandma and Grandpa Anthony says you looked like Dad when he was a baby. Even though everyone says how you look like Mom,” he asked and certainly since being home. He had seen baby pictures of his mother and could see the resemblance of his sister and mother from miles away.
“Then they might be crazy,” Marah thought. “Or they want to believe it because truly I am not Alex. Because my blood type makes it impossible. I cannot be related to Dad,” she said softly. “Apparently I have an extremely rare blood type, that links me to someone else.”
“God,” Lex muttered as if he could not comprehend it, and it seem crazy and farfetched. It cannot possibly be true…
“Yeah,” Mariah muttered. “Well, it is,” she sighed as she thought of her new lot in life. And it was something she was going to have to get used to, because she was running out of her chances to screw up her life and use it as an excuse because it was obvious to her that her mother was already there. “I did not learn this little tidbit until after Dad died, so I have no idea how he would react to Mom’s past,” she thought. “Because Mom did not have an affair….”
“Because Mom and Dad loved each other,” Lex asked. Because that was something even at twelve when his father died that he had been certain of.
“I had the same impression,” Mariah sighed. “And I believe it,” she sighed. “It was someone Mom was with before she was with Dad, and before she left this town. Back when she was in high school. They were even engaged to be married…”
“Holy Crap,” Lex murmured.
As the older sister Mariah knew it was her role to clamp down on her brother’s language, but she had seen him use worse words, and she just could not muster up the energy to express it now, “Things happen, and they ended. And Mom and Dad met, and everyone went on their way into their new lives, and Mom was none the wiser and did not question it when she got pregnant with me, and married Dad, and I was born…”
“Whoa,” Lex whispered. Like his sister, he knew how to count and knew from when their parent’s anniversary was, and when his sister was born, well, there was a reason why their parents were quick to get married. Mariah, he thought.
He did not come until a few years later…
“How are you handling it?” Lex asked, as if he did not know. She is falling apart.
“Obviously, I am barely holding on,” Mariah muttered. “I do not hate Mom. She might not believe me, but I believe she loved Dad, and she says she had no reason to question who my father was, and I believe her on that, because I do not think she would have strung on Dad if things were different than they were, but they were not, and she met Dad and they fell in love and wanted to be together. I was just unanticipated,” she thought. “Not that it makes it any easier to know that” she thought. “It just hurts to know Dad was not my father.”
“Dad was your father, whether it reads that way on your health records or not” Lex murmured. “Dad loved you, and there should be no questioning of that fact,” he said as leaned in to give his sister a hug, and it was a hug that she found that she needed.
More than she thought she would.
“I love you sis,” Lex murmured. You will always be my sister.
*
“Are you okay son?” Phillip was asking as they drove back to the family house. His car was not working well, and because of how quick his need to get to the station. Phillip had taken a taxi, and now his son was driving his father home from the police station as thanks for the help his father gave in making sure that Mariah was able to get out of the situation without any true issues.
Although Phillip had not really been needed. But you never knew when you are dealing with the police. Even if they had Jim as a family friend. Phillip’s mind was back in the cell. As Max had found out it. It is never easy to have to bail out one child’s out of a prison cell. As Phillip had too much of a personal experience with that, and it was not as easy or tidy that today’s experience. No, that had way too close for comfort.
“Better than I could have been,” was all Max was going to be say. “It’s not a very easy situation to be honest with you,” he thought. “I wish it could be a snap of my fingers that I give Mariah the opportunity to move on, and to come to terms with her life.”
“At least you are trying to be there for her,” Phillip said softly. “It is never easy.”
“I feel like I am being a hypocrite because for so long I was so out of it, and not present and here I am trying to get through her and make her seem like life is not a lost cause,” Max asked. “I know how I treated the bulk of River’s childhood?”
“At least you see it, and as you said, you are trying” Phillip said. “It’s never too late.”
“No, it is not,” Max said softly as he pulled out into the driveway of his childhood home. A home that had many memories. Both good and some bad ones but on this day, at least he could treasure that it was not all bad as he watched as his father got out of the car, and saw the front door opening up, and his mother walking out.
And Max knew how much his parents had given him.
*
River did not feel like going home with his father. Even though he knew he could have had the diversion in the car of his grandfather until they dropped him off at his grandparent’s home. Still, he was not in the mood to be sitting in the car and been in the hot seat and the whim of whatever mood his father was in. Even though he knew he had a pass this once with his father regarding being in jail. And having had his father having to come and get him released. Any repeat offenses are unlikely going to have the same leniency he thought and had been told as much by his father before their parting.
But still he had not been in the mood to be in the car. And so, he decided to go for a walk before finding his own way home. And plus, he knew once his father dropped off his grandfather. Well, his father would need space.
Most of the time these days father and son had found it was better to give them each space and seemed to be better and figuring out when it was too much for either one of them. It was better for their relationship, although any peace was still tentative and capable of erupting, as evidence in their fight in the wake of New Years, so yes, Max needed to take a drive, and River since he was already in town, went for a walk because he did feel like driving the car he had taken into town.
So, now he was walking. And thinking of how unbelievable bizarre his life was. And that was something given he was raised in the family he was, with all its unique branches, and now there was a new branch.
So, he was looking for something to take his mind of what his family was capable of. Sierra, he thought. Someone refreshing normal. Someone who took in his quirks, and he knew he had a few although like his father’s generation. He knew how to blend in, because it had been drilled into him, Mac, and Jessica that they should not be doing anything to make waves. Which is why he had to take the blame for his half-sister in the first place, because he could not have suspicion in the community, and then today in the fight with Roxy and her crew of misfits. After all, he had experience with Roxy and he knew how she worked, for someone who is normal he thought, she could be destructive if she had an ounce of the power he had, or from the way it turned out.
Mariah did.
Which is why he had needed to find her, and worried she was up for anything because she was down the dumps on numerous counts. Which led to the park and led to the jail cell and his father coming to bail him out.
Even though he had gotten out on his good reputation and their family association with the town Sheriff. He knew that he did not have that card to use as often as Mac did because the town Sheriff was Mac’s grandfather, but he knew Mac would not have that card as often as it had been used in his father’s day.
Because those days were why they had to be careful.
And knew Mariah would not have the same restraint because she was a newbie to all this. Still, he needed a distraction from thinking of how weird his family, and how dysfunctional it was… so, he was going to seek out Sierra.
River was not that familiar with Sierra’s home life. Only that she had relocated to their school after starting the year at neighboring Goddard High a school often forgotten by its citizens he thought.
And even in their association or relationship, whatever you chose to call it and he knew they did not have a definition for it, because that is how we want it he mused. Still, he had not dealt with Sierra’s mother, and especially not her father.
Who did not live in the family house because they had long been divorced? Sierra never talked about her father.
But then for so long he never talked about his father, even though he lived in the same house. His mother was a whole other story he thought. But I am not thinking of her as he changed directions and headed towards Sierra’s house.
He did not have to walk far, and unsure of what to get from Sierra’s mother. River knew Sierra had taken over the basement. So, he walked into the back, and walked down the stairs because Sierra had her own walkout, which made River wish he had the same thing because it would have prevented so much pain between his father and him over the years he thought. Yeah, it would have been better, but his father was looking to give his son a way out when he designed the house when his son was a baby and too young to have a say in how he wanted the house to be constructed.
So, River walked down the few stairs, preparing to knock on the door that led to Sierra’s room. A room that they had made use of when her mother was at work. And she did not have to see her father, which was almost always… Daddy issues he thought. I am one to talk which is why he did talk about them because there was so little, he could say that did not also include him…
“Hey Sie…” River said as he knocked on the door as he knocked on the door, but located on the door, was a window and he could not help this once looking in, and he was shocked by what he saw… Holy hell he thought as he did not know what to think.
But his attempted first knock had been heard, and Sierra looked around in shock…
Sierra with flashing glowy powers as she was fixing a broken lamp was not what he was expecting to see…
Holy Shit he murmured.