Family Matters (CC, Mature) - Chapter 88 - Completed - 01/10/2024

[Parker1947]

She’s sorry Max could only think. What does that do to the situation now he could not help but think She is finding it easy to say, ‘I am sorry’, as he looked at the woman he loved. The only woman he loved. And they shared a tremendous history together. Full of love and meaning, and yet they could not make it work. And they had both hurt each other in some way or another. And having to say, I am sorry he thought. And she knew it. But she could not help but say it, because she meant. Even if she did not regret the decisions she had made. Still, she knew she was sorry for what it all had led to.

Max hated this, but he had to look at the big picture at the end of the day. “You can say that all you want but it does not take back the past, and it does nothing to help the present” Max muttered. “All I can ask for is that the future is better for all of us, and Claudia is here right now, and I have a chance. And that was not something I had a week ago.”

Liz nodded. But she was sorry and knew they would never get back what they both had lost, and in particular Max. “I hate this for you Max.”

You created it, he wanted to say and knew he was still a little bitter about it. But did not say it because it wouldn’t do them anything to tread old ground when nothing could change what happened or give back what was lost. And as Max indicated. Only the future was possible. Not litigating the past. Or being sorry.

Because what does saying the word sorry get you?

So, they both needed to move on, so it was better to deal with a subject that did not have so much negative emotion attached to it “You really came in the old way?” Liz asked softly, with a smirk and a smile. A smile that Max loved seeing because too much of this was angsty, what else is new they both thought. It was a standard of the past they knew.

“Yes,” Max said equally as softly.

Liz could not help but smile.

Once more the smile was gold to Max. Yet he could not help but think of what he had heard. “What were you talking to our daughter about?”

The past Liz murmured to herself and did not dwell on it anymore. It had already taken out a lot from her in having to remember what she had remembered and did not want to have to go through once more with someone who mattered. “I rather not discuss it” she murmured.

“Liz?” Max asked.

“Max,” Liz said right back. “Let us concentrate on the now, and not the past. Just like we were just talking to our daughter about. We cannot change anything.”

Max murmured something unrecognizable.

“I want to know,” Max said softly. “We were married once. And that was a decision I will never regret,” he murmured with a smile. And it did get him to smile for a moment before it turned to a frown, an inquisitive one though. “Do you regret it?”

It was as if he expected her to say she did.

“Of course not,” Liz murmured. I will never regret it. No matter the changes that came to my life from knowing and loving Max she mused to herself. “I will never regret it,” she said with conviction that was genuine. “I loved you.”

“Do you still love me?” Max could not ask. For no good reason he knew. Why am I doing this to myself? he asked himself because he knew full well that it would do no good for him to get an answer to that question.

“Max,” Liz sighed. Because she knew fully well that I do love him still to this day she knew. Because there was never another man who could make her feel like Max had when they were a teenager, and now in the eighteen years that had passed since their split. But it does nothing to think about feelings when nothing could change any of it.

Max knew he was opening himself up to disappointment. What else is new, he thought. “I guess I don’t want the answer to that,” he said softly. “I hate to think that you don’t anymore” he said softly, and Liz’s eyes turned away from his, but only for a brief second before it returned. “But really Liz even though we may never agree about your decision to leave me and to take our daughter with you, without telling me the truth, even though I am the one who let you leave with her, without my fighting for her to stay” because he knew he could have. Even though he did not know of those original facts, or the fact there was unlikely to be any kind of ending that was any good if Liz had chosen to leave him and their daughter together. Because he did not know any of this. But he also wanted to know, “But I do deserve to know more. I know how it hurts you. I know how much it costs to look into the past. And experience it all over again.”

“No, you don’t” Liz said snappishly.

“Liz,” Max said softly. I do, he thought. Because it was hell to think of his own time.

“You cannot possibly know what it is like” Liz murmured. “You don’t know what it is like to have to make the decision I had to make over these years. So, you could not possibly know…”

“Only because you have not let me in?” Max asked. “If you had let me in. Then maybe you would not have had to do it alone?” he murmured as he could see how emotional it was making his former wife. A woman who he had known for over twenty years. And many more than that, because of when he had first seen her. On that playground he thought. But it would be years before he would know what love felt like, and what it would mean to him.

And it was more than twenty years later, and she was here. After too many years without her even to stare at.

“I know you want to deal with it yourself, but we were married” Max said. “For better and for worse, to death do us part” he said softly, and Liz felt like she was melting. It was always like this with us, she thought. Of her inability to stay away when they were around each other. Because she knew she had not abided by those words.

“Max,” Liz murmured just as softly.

She had known that she had run.

“You keep on saying that I could not possibly have known what it was like?” Max asked. Knowing full well that he should just leave this alone. Leave this room, leave this apartment and head home and deal with the future now that his daughter was in town. Because revisiting old pain, and old trauma will never do anyone any one any good he knew. But I will never be able to leave Liz, he thought, not truly he thought.

I might walk away on occasion, but Liz will always have my heart, and she has so many answers that I don’t know the answer to.

“Leave it alone Max,” Liz said softly.

“I know it has to be bad for you,” Max asked. As he was once more trying to figure out why it matters at all? When he should be dealing with the now, and not dealing with the past, because that will not change, he thought, I will never be able to go back and fix what I lost. But it was not hard to miss that his former wife was still traumatized by whatever went down.

After all, he knew what trauma was like. Because he had dealt with it once upon a time.

“It was hell,” Liz murmured. Softly, as flashes came to her and of screams. “But as I said, you cannot possibly know what it was like.”

“I wish I did,” Max sighed.

“You will never know what it was like to leave you. To take Claudia from you,” Liz muttered as memories took over of their wedding. A day that had been so memorable, despite the circumstances. On the road, fleeing from the authorities and having to leave our families, we stopped with the mountains behind us, and in that little white church she thought. We were so in love she thought of that day, and then to have their daughter. Everything was perfect, she thought. For like a second, she knew. What else is new. “To leave the life I wanted, when I married you” she sighed. “It should never have been like that, but it was. They wanted me to leave you. To leave Claudia, and they were threatening you, Isabel and Michael. But Isabel and Michael had the safety in being away from us, but even then, if I said no, I knew they would be picked up just like you and Claudia would be” Liz murmured. Because she knew fully well that she had not told her former husband any of this. Only Claudia now knew. And even then, there was more her daughter did not know.

It all came out at once, and Max could not grasp any of it. Because none of it made any sense because it was contrary to what he had known of the situation to this point. “What are you talking about?” he asked as it slowly sunk in. “They did not want Claudia?”

Of course not, she thought. Why would they want our child, she thought to herself. “As I said to you in the beginning,” Liz muttered, because she swore, she had said it before, but she knew there had been so much talk, and she could not remember all of it, “I had to convince them that she was safe, but no,” Liz said finally confessing. “They did not want our little girl to come with me. That would never have been in their plans,” she muttered. “In ordinary times, and those times were not ordinary times. All they wanted was for me to leave the two of you Max” she said. “To walk away from you two.”

“Claudia would have been with me?” Max asked, as if that would have made a difference. When he knew it would never happen. Not without Liz in our lives.

“Yes,” Liz said softly, too softly. And it almost broke her heart to have to admit it. Same knowing it was all a façade. “They wanted me to leave you. To walk away. Leave you and our daughter,” she said with a frown, and it almost destroyed Max to know what the government had wanted. Yet my daughter would have been with me, but not Liz.

“If you did what they wanted?” Max asked.

Liz could only nod yes.

“What could you say to their demands?” Max asked. Because of course they both knew what history would say was done.

“I said no,” Liz said softly.

Max was not expecting that. Given the agreement that she would come too, and the fact she had walked away. Something had to have happened, and for her to make the decision she had, and so he figured that something happened to cause her to leave.

Of course, something had to have happened Max muttered. It always did.

“There was no way I was going to leave you and Claudia,” Liz said softly. “And I was adamant. Max, there was no way in hell I was going to leave you and Claudia alone.”

Obviously, you did Max mused. “What made you change your mind? Max asked.

“The threats,” Liz said simply. “They did not like that I was with you. That we were married or had Claudia. They did not think you were worthy and got on my case. But when they promised to go pick you up for crimes you had committed in Roswell or over state lines. The stuff they knew. Which was probably our whole rap sheet,” she muttered, and Max winced because he knew had not been so innocent. Some of the stuff they had done was not a good look for him, and it was not easy to look at himself in the mirror. He hated that it was going to be his legacy, and something his daughter was going to be aware of, once Claudia knows more… he thought as he looked at the woman who held his heart as she was clearly in the middle of a remembrance. “I wanted to just spit in their face. But I knew they were serious Max. They were talking about arresting you, and then going after Michael and Isabel. And they knew all of their locations. The only person they did not know was Kyle, but Kyle did not matter in those days. But you did. You mattered. You and Claudia mattered,” she said softly. “They were threatening me Max,” she said softly. “They were even threatening me with Claudia.”

Oh god Max thought. He knew the authorities were out there and come down hard on them at any point. Sure, he knew that. Which is why they had run, we had too he had known. But he did not think they would. That rose colored glass view he knew. We got away.

We had separated from the group and living our own life.

“They knew our alias’s Max,” Liz said softly, and Max felt slowly devastated. He knew the risk they were taking with those stupid aliases. Slightly altered to make them more palatable. “They knew everything. But I was trying to deny it. But they had too much leverage on us. I knew they could have done something worse. They could have picked you up. And then they even threatened it,” she murmured with remnants of the fear coursing through of what she had faced back then, those memories are still with me to this day. “Max, they threatened to take Claudia away from us if I said no.”

“They would never have succeeded,” Max said softly. I would have called in the army to prevent that from happening.

“They knew your crimes, whether they could prove them or not. They knew what you were. And what you guys were able to do, thanks to that tape that your parents made that told the tale. At least in terms of Isabel…” she muttered. And they could probably trace it to you and Michael pretty quickly.

Hell Max thought. Because it was the one thing, he knew his parents had been living down until the day his mother had died. Being what they had done to Isabel and him, with the spying.

Not that we were not suspicious, he knew.

We were he knew. But it was something he would always regret. Waiting so long to tell Mom and Dad and therefore he knew they were living it down until the day his mother had passed away, which is why it was such a shock to know there was something else Dad had done that would change my life, he thought. He had known his father was sorry for what he and his mother had done. I could not blame him because of what we kept from them, but why did it give him the right to keep something so fundamental from him.

It did not, and that is why he and his father still were on the outs because of it.

“They could have painted us in a bad light,” Liz said softly. “They did not like who you were, or that I loved you” she murmured. “They would have painted me as unfit.”

Max definitely knew they could have painted them in a different light, which is why Michael, Isabel and I were so afraid to say anything he knew.

“You are as far as unfit as you can get?” Max murmured. “They can say whatever they want about me, and most of it is probably true, but you were never me” he said softly, as he grabbed Liz’s hand, and glanced right into her eyes. “I mean it Liz. You were incredible. They would never have been able to credibly say you were unfit.”

“Max, I almost went to prison for armed robbery, in which I held a gun,” Liz murmured even if it was blank, and we ultimately melted it and they would never be able to find it but still it was an extremely bad look “and you only got me out of it because you blackmailed the government agent, along with your father.”

I know Max murmured of one of those moments where he did not regret his actions. As long as Liz was safe and out of jail than I was fine with doing anything to bring that about…

“And your family would have looked to have issues,” Liz murmured. Given Isabel was just like Max, and Phillip was a corporate attorney… “They would have grabbed you, and put Claudia in foster care, and we would never have gotten her back.”

“You don’t know that…” Max muttered. “Our families.”

“As we both know, if the government wants to win, they will throw every obstacle into the battle” Liz murmured.

Max nodded.

“They wanted me to leave you and Claudia” Liz muttered.

Max nodded once more.

“But I said No, and I meant it when I said it Max” Liz murmured. “There was no way I was going to leave you and our daughter.”

And yet, you did was hanging out there in the air between them.

“There was no way I was going to cave to their demands” Liz said softly.

“Then what happened?” Max asked. Even though he did not really want to know because he hated to know Liz was at any point in time, pained because of me.

It was all because of me he would muse. I started this by jumping into the fire to save her life, and everything that came afterwards was a direct result of that action he knew. But looking at the love of his life. He knew he would do the same thing today if given the chance. It was always Liz.

Always…

“What happened?” Max asked.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Liz said reverting back to her skittishness. Because she had tried to move on from that day, for now eighteen years, and to talk about it, would be re-living it, and she did not want to do that. Not now.

I am supposed to be moving on, not going backwards she thought as she saw Max tense. “It does not matter what happened to get me to change my mind. I did change my mind. But I got them to allow me to take Claudia.”

“Why?” Max asked. “If they did not like the idea of me, then why would they agree to allow you to take our daughter with you?” he asked.

“I convinced them that she was normal, as I already told you” Liz sighed. “I had too,” she said. “As much as I knew you would love her, and take care of her, but if they were already threatening to take her away from us, then I did not trust that if something happened and they reneged on our agreement and picked you up, then Claudia would be taken away from us, and put in the system. And seeing how it was for Michael. To be special, and to know no one can understand, well, I could not do it.”

Max nodded. Michael’s life was hell until he got out of Hank’s custody, and even then, it was not how it should have been he knew. Thankfully he and Isabel had been there to keep him on the right track, although there were a few sidetracks here and there he knew.

“We would have lost our daughter. And we would never have gotten her back” Liz cried. “And she would have had no one to really get her.”

Max did not know how to handle any of this. This encounter or anything. He had simply come to see his daughter, and now landed himself in a very emotional scene with his former wife. Because he hated to see her upset, I hate to see her hurt.

It was like that at eighteen, and especially more so nineteen years later. After so much heartache and separation and now they were in the same room, and all Max could do was take the love of his life into his arms for a simple hug.

But nothing was simple with Max and Liz.

It had never been and was not now.

“Max,” Liz said softly. Unable to take a step back from the man she had had shared so much and yet they had spent more time apart then they had been together, and yet their connection was unmistaken and remarkable. “I cannot do this?”

“It will get better,” Max said simply. As he was not giving his answer.

“I had to do what I had to do. To save you and to keep Claudia,” Liz said softly. “And I still said no.”

“What did they do to get you to change your mind?” Max asked, once more. As he was clearly hoping she would finally tell him. Because he had many images in his mind, and they were not easy to handle. But he had no idea if any of them were true, or for real. Because he had experienced his own horrors, and he knew he had only gone through a small portion of what Agent Fisher was truly capable of, and if Liz had been resistant. He could only imagine.

It was a horror movie in his head.

Liz did not want to remember. And she also did not want Max to know. “I don’t want to relive that day,” Liz said simply. Even though she was herself, and it was clear she was and even Max knew it.

And therefore, he was at a loss to lessen then pain he could not begin to understand or know of…

“Liz, please, let me help you?” Max asked in an almost pleadingly way.

“I don’t need help,” Liz said softly but she was not about to walk away from the embrace, because it felt good to be in Max’s arms again.

“Everyone needs a little help, and a little support” Max murmured as he felt entranced by this embrace. Even though he knew he should not be. He should be walking away. Staying away from his own sanity, but it is Liz.

And it will always be Liz for me. Whether that is good or bad in the long run, and she’s hurting he knew. I need to support her through the emotional revelations of this talk. “I love you, Liz.”

“Max, please don’t” Liz asked, pleadingly like because she knew it was the last thing they needed, to mix love into this angst. “We should not be doing this. We should be thinking about Claudia,” Yes, Claudia. We should be thinking about our little girl, she murmured, trying to convince herself to walk away from this situation. A situation that she did not need. She is no longer a little girl, and we have to deal with that… “We should be thinking of our daughter,” she murmured but Max was not going to allow her to walk away from him again nor was he going to walk away from her, as said nothing and they both clung on, when both knew they were both hopeless, and they should be better than this, but it was them, and we cannot help it they knew as they simply hung on, but they could not help but lean in for a kiss.

A kiss that grew explosive…

As the flashes began, whether one of them wanted them too or not.

[Superman86]

Things are heating up between Max and Liz. Feelings finally seem to pouring through with them, hopefully this is a start to mending all those hurt feelings from the past.

[Parker1947]

Passion.

It was a feeling that was all too common for Max and Liz, and on this day, they just dug in and went with it, and did not walk away from it. Because neither side could do it. Even when flashes were coming fast and furious. Of the past. Of their incredible connection. Mystical and unexplainable, but uniquely them, and just as it was telling of their incredible connection. Their incredible passion for each other. Those little moments that were so simple, and so simple even in the mess that was their high school relationship with each other. But then it did not stop. It continued and Max was almost staggering back at the force of what it was revealing, and it was a horror show as images were being revealed, but of course, because of their immense history together. They knew how to barrel on through.

Even though Max wanted to stop and say something. Liz knew this and did not want to have to talk about it. Because it was hell to have to know it was deep inside her. But still, the images were telling the story. “Max, don’t, please” was all she could say. Max wanted desperately to say something. But then the kiss became even more passionate than either of them thought possible, as they ended up heading towards Liz’s bedroom.

A room that had been forbidden once upon a time. But now was welcoming both of them because they both knew being here together was an easy diversion.

*

Diversions were often needed. And Claudia Diane Evans certainly knew that because, like her parents, she was seeking herself one. But unlike her parents. Claudia was doing something that was not seeking consolation and probably making things worse. She went and found her brother. “Hey bro” Claudia said as she watched JJ walk out of the library. In a gathering of kids, but at a distance from each other. Still, they found a way to communicate. Chatting about some sports game that had been on television or something.

It was not Claudia’s sort of thing. She was into all kinds of different hobbies, but nothing sports related.

JJ who had been chatting with a fellow child. “Claudia, what are you doing here?” he asked as he expected to see his mother, not his sister. “I did not expect to see you.”

“Clearly,” Claudia said with a smile. “Have you been able to make some friends?” she asked as the other kids noticed their parents and walked off.

“Some,” JJ admitted.

“I am glad,” Claudia smiled because she knew how much the past year had taken a toll on her brother, not simply because of his education pursuits which were still pretty thin at age ten, but his friendships. And not being able to see them. She felt the same with her inability to see friends and losing some of them to other places. But it was more troublesome for a growing boy. Who was chatty, and loving life.

JJ nodded. “So, why did you come?” he asked. “Where is Mom?”

“Busy,” Claudia smiled.

“With what?” JJ asked. Because he knew his mother had free time and was not planning on anything that he knew of.

“It does not matter,” Claudia murmured because he knew.

JJ did not know whether to question it, so he waved it off. “So, what, are you taking me home?” he asked. Although he did not know what to call his home. The motel? It’s where I am sleeping, he thought as he had yet to have a home last so far in this town.

“How would you like to go on an adventure?” Claudia asked because she knew they could not go back to the Crashdown, to where her moment probably was, because I do not want to deal with that, right now she thought. And the motel is cramped she thought. So, she had to think of something that could keep her brother entertained.

And give me something to do, so that I don’t think of my life…

JJ looked weary, like he was not sure where his sister was going with any of this. Because he expected that he would be taken back to the motel, at least he thought. “What is going on?” he asked. “Is Mom, okay?” because he was quite used to over the last year in particular having his older sister being his chief babysitter. With her being forced to keep him entertained, even there was not a lot we could do. And there had been certainly days even before that because of the age difference, and their mother having to work. So, Claudia tended to be viewed as an easy backup. So, it was not like JJ was surprised to see Claudia acting as his companion. But he was now weary of what she was up to. “Is she Claudia?”

“Oh, I am sure she is” Claudia said a smile. Because she knew full well that she had left her parents in quite the situation, and knew she needed to stay away from the apartment because if they went back now, who knows what they would find. With those two, anything is possible she knew.

This day was definitely a showcase of whatever connection her parents had.

And it mystified her.

Still did, even as she had taken time to walk down to the library. Roswell being a small town. Well, it was easy to find it. And she waited for her brother to come out, and it she checked her phone, and she had yet to get a response to any of her texts to Archie. He’s playing a game of hiding, she muttered, and she did not like it.

So, it gave her a mission to go find him.

And something to think about that did not involve her parents, or how they were back in the same town and at the moment, in the same room together, and whatever that meant she sighed because she had no idea. She forever wanted a normal family.

But she did not know what that entailed, or what it meant for her. After eighteen years of it being her mother and her, and then with JJ once he joined the family. It was bizarre for her, so she was looking for any diversion she could get. “How about it?”

“What is this mission?” JJ asked, a little wearily. Because just like their mother. He could see his big sister was tense and he did not know what that meant to his life. Not that he was not used to his family walking a tight rope, even though he did not know the particular details of whatever was making both his mother and sister uptight. “What are you up too?”

“Nothing,” Claudia said simply. Because she was not up to anything. All she wanted was a diversion from thinking about the greater issues surrounding herself. And Archie’s mysterious disappearance had given her one. “I need to find Archie.”

“Why?” JJ asked. “Did he go missing or something?”

The way JJ said it, it made Claudia actually laugh. Which was something she needed to do more often. And JJ enjoyed hearing it. Because he had not heard it much, due to the whole world going insane. “Or something” Claudia muttered. Because even though she might have been giving her father a hard time, but she knew that her father had no basis for being hard on Archie, not yet anyways and she knew if something was up, then her father had sensed it. Then something was up.

And Archie is not responding to my texts.

And that annoys me she muttered to herself, because it was weird given how concerned he was over me she knew. Which means, I have to find him. “So, how about it?” she asked of her brother. “Mom is busy,” she said, probably, most likely she is she thought. But I don’t want to think how busy she is she knew. “And I need to find my boyfriend. So, do you want to help me search?”

Okay I am game he thought even if he felt there was more to it, there is always more to it he knew. In this family, nothing is simple “Do you know a place to start?” JJ asked.

“Nope,” Claudia smiled. “That will be part of a challenge.”

JJ could not help but smile, and just as they were ready to set out. They were stopped when Claudia and JJ recognized someone.

*

Meanwhile,

Tripp had been leaving the office. After actually showing up to work. Because his father had a business meeting and needed him at the office. So, after the confusion earlier with Crystal. Something he was unable to explain. With Crystal rushing off after her brother. Tripp only sighed and walked off to head to work. While of course Max headed upstairs to the Crashdown, where he currently still was… But Tripp had to deal with the office. Fortunately, it was a brief moment, but his father had decided to come with him, so they were headed for lunch. Neither knowing where to go. Because neither knew what they felt like. So, they were talking business, and a bit of sports too as they were headed over to the high school for the local basketball game. So, they were talking about the teams.

Not noticing that they were near the library. Tripp did not have to deal with schoolwork, because it was done for the moment. He had it handed, so he did not have to deal with studying, which was fortunate. “Want to grab dinner before the game?” Kyle was asking. Because it was almost as if it was father like son because Kyle was not big at cooking. And therefore, he and Tripp rarely ate at home unlike when it was barbeque.

“Sure, why not” Tripp muttered.

“What is going on?” Kyle asked as he was noticing that his son was distracted. Given he was distracted a lot of times when he was young, I know the signs, but there were many reasons why he had been for a few years there, my life completely changed he thought.

But he had rarely seen it in his son. Because Tripp had been able to have an easier life despite his inability to find a wife and stick to the concept of marriage, that was definitely an expensive lesson he thought.

“Nothing,” Tripp said softly. As he could not help but think of the earlier, and Crystal in general. And the more pressing idea, what we don’t know he thought. Sure, I don’t know Archie but Crystal appearing in town gives more questions than answers.

And to see Archie walk off, after looking at Max as if he was seeing a ghost. And not simply as his girlfriend’s biological father.

It was that vibe, and Tripp could sense it because he had seen a lot of confused looks over his life given the uniqueness of his family tree. So, Archie must know something he thought. Therefore, he hoped Claudia did not get hurt.

“Are you sure?” Kyle asked. “I know it’s not exams coming up?”

“Nope, it’s not that” Tripp agreed. I have all that handled “It’s nothing. Just something I encountered and probably a lot more innocent than I am making it to be,” he muttered. “It’s nothing Dad, I promise.”

“If it turns out to be something, you can always come to me?”

“I will keep that in mind,” was all Tripp said as their conversation turned back to sports. But Crystal and Claudia stayed on her mind, and that before he saw a familiar brunette up near the library. With a young boy. And it was not hard to recognize her. “Oh.”

“What?” Kyle asked as he glanced turned off the phone he was studying, and the calendar of a meeting he was supposed to be taking that afternoon. I needed to confirm with Liz he thought, and then he turned his focus and saw Claudia and JJ. “That is interesting.”

“Yes, it is” Tripp agreed. “Claudia?” he called out.

Claudia had been getting ready to head on her mission when she spotted the familiar twosome. Not that she knew them that well. More so Tripp, but she knew from her mother’s journal that Tripp’s father was very close to her mother. It was a weird situation she knew because it was him, that Mom left for my father she thought.

Even if it was all so innocent in the beginning. “Mr. Valenti,” she murmured. “JJ, you remember Mom’s friend, and his son Tripp. They were over the other day at the Crashdown”

“And I saw Mr. Valenti later…”

“Really, it’s not Valenti” Kyle murmured. “You two are making me sound old” he said with a smirk. I know I am no longer eighteen, but I don’t feel ancient yet, or a Mister even when I am. “Or like my father.”

You are old Tripp thought. “We are the newer generation, he thought but wisely did not say that and Claudia could only smile. “Sorry.”

“Call me Kyle,” Kyle said with an encouraging smile. “It’s just Kyle. I have known your mother since we were teenagers, so we don’t have to be so formal with each other” he said with a nod. “I saw JJ later on. So, how is the big adjustment going?” he asked of the small boy. Who he knew was in for a rougher ride in a new town, after a bad year he thought. Not that Claudia’s is any easier, he knew.

“Okay, Kyle” Claudia said. “Nice to see you Tripp.”

“Yeah, you two” Tripp murmured.

“I was just thinking of your mother” Kyle was saying. “I know we were supposed to meet today but some other emergencies came up, so I will be calling her to see when we can meet.”

“You don’t have to worry about her right now,” Claudia muttered. “She’s busy,” she said with a flourish. The last thing she is going to want to think about is the Crashdown she thought of the business they were supposed to be getting off the business, once more.

“Is she?” Kyle asked.

“Yes,” Claudia acknowledged. “A little preoccupied with my father”

Well, well, well Kyle murmured but wisely did not say that. “I see,” he said with a look that Claudia was sure was a smile that was being concealed for her. “That I guess is not surprising because when we were younger. They could not stay apart from each other for long,” he said with a sigh. Except for that long and unfortunate year he knew where things went a little haywire, and everything changed for all of us.

“Well, they ultimately were able to stay apart” Claudia muttered. “For eighteen years.”

“Maybe, but when they are in the same town. You will find they have a connection that is pretty unexplainable, and they are unable to stay away from each other for long, no matter what has happened between each other” he thought.

“I will have to take your word for it,” Claudia murmured. Even though she had certainly seen enough evidence to know what Tripp’s father was saying was the truth with her parents, which confuses me all the more she knew.

“Do that,” Kyle said softly. “Whatever happens. I am just glad your mother and you are back in town” he murmured. “We have missed you guys.”

“If you say so,” Claudia muttered.

She did not know if that was true. She did not know what it meant to be missed. Because all her life had been leading the life she had led. A solitary life, along with her mother and little brother. She did not know what it was like to have a big and extended family. She knew in theory she had one now, but it did not feel like it.

She was used to being alone.

Kyle could see the confusion in the girl. “You will figure out what you want for your life,” he promised. “Just know your mother did the best she could by you…”

Claudia nodded. “This town has been one thing after another,” she muttered. “I don’t know how to take any of it.”

“It definitely does have its unique qualities to it,” Kyle said with a smile. And Tripp was just on the side of his father, unsure of how to handle Claudia. “What are you two up too, if your mother is so busy?” he asked, with Max, what else was new he thought.

“Claudia wants help finding her boyfriend,” JJ said matter of flatly.

“Really?” Kyle asked, and Tripp’s attention piqued. Which was something Kyle noticed of his son, if she has a boyfriend, son you will be on the outside he could not help but think because he knew a losing battle when he saw it. Because he had been on the losing side with Claudia’s mother himself, although I will admit that we were unlikely to go anywhere given Liz’s path, and then later when Isabel fell for Jesse.

Despite wanting something to happen. He knew it was hopeless. Because Isabel was not noticing him, and life just did not work out that. We are better as friends, he thought. To want to go there, now, would be too late, right? he thought of the moment he and Isabel had shared the other night, before it was interrupted by their daughter.

A fact that they have yet to really deal with. But it made for a lot of confusion, and neither knowing what to do about it. Or what we want to do about it.

It was all so easy.

But now, it’s a different ballgame Kyle knew.

“Really?” Kyle said once more. “Where is he?”

“Who knows,” Claudia muttered. “He disappeared on me,” she sighed because she was not used to it being Archie who was disappearing on her. It usually is me who does the walking, she muttered to herself.

“He did rush off in a rush” was all Tripp could comment before he got a surprise look from his father, and an eyebrow rise from Claudia.

“You know where Archie went off too?” Claudia asked.

“Nope,” Tripp muttered. “All I know is he left in a rush,” she sighed, and the nature of his evasive answer got the attention of both his father and Claudia. And therefore, it made Claudia’s eyebrow raise once more. What do you know?

And she decided to ask herself. “What do you know?” Claudia murmured.

*

As it turns out. Tripp did not know much of anything, and Archie did not know much more but all he knew was his head was ringing. Like a nightmare was exerting itself through his brain with flashes coming in quick. Of things he didn’t know anything about and would not be able to tell if they were true. Crystal was getting concerned about him. Archie had rushed off, and it took a while for Crystal to catch up on his flustered brother.

Who was tight lipped. But because he had enough money. He was able to check her into a motel room for another night. Until they figured out what was going on, Crystal was not able to talk to her brother because he had been quiet.

Too quiet. And it was not like Archie to be quiet. At least to Crystal. Her big brother was larger than life. Someone who had left home. And chose to strike out on his own. Plus, he was older by several years because their parents thought they would be unable to have children, and so they decided to adopt a needy child. Only for the first year to cause trouble in their marriage, and they would be on and off until she was on the way, and then they were truly off Crystal thought. Like Claudia, she had never known a happy couple together.

But unlike Claudia. Neither of the elder Holmes had been that suited together. And ultimately it was for the best that they parted, and unfortunately Archie and Crystal had an up and down life with both of their parents, and mostly for Archie it was down with our father Crystal thought. Not that she was old enough for a long time to really see.

But now she did, but she had her own relationship with her father, and she wanted to see the best. But unfortunately, on this day, she was seeing the downside of their father. Which is why she had done this spur of the moment trip, and now she was having to realize she had set out without a firm plan on how to deal with it. Or money to finance it. “Are you going to talk to me?” she was asking her brother as they stood in the motel room. On the second floor of the motel. Not near Liz and JJ’s motel rooms, but they would not know this.

All Archie knew was his sister needed a place to crash until he hopefully got on her on the first bus to the nearest big city with an airport so she could fly home. Because Mom will have a fit and Dad might not be too far behind if they find out Archie knew. But he had not begun to talk to her about her plans, or his assumptions for that matter. Because he still was mulling how life changing the last couple of hours had been.

He had walked off. Not thinking of anything other than the stunning realization he had come to when he looked at Claudia’s father. Max Evans and it was like he had suddenly realized who Max really was and it had not come to him, the other night he thought, why now? he was forced to think and even then, he still had not begun to process it.

Nor did he even begin to know how to handle it Or, do I want to? He wondered because of the larger implications to the discovery. And so, he did not know how to answer his sister’s persistent questions that were coming fast and furious since she had found him after he had stalked off. “Talk to me,” Crystal would mutter out loud. “Why the silent treatment?”

“You don’t want me to talk,” Archie muttered. As he exchanged a glare with his younger sister.

“Why not?” Crystal asked.

“Because I don’t want to have to remind you that you did not need to come here,” Archie muttered. “Even if you had it out with our father,” he murmured. “I came here to visit Claudia, and I did not need you here.”

“Are you with her now?” Crystal asked. “You look awfully alone?”

“No,” Archie muttered at the contradiction that his sister was seeing. “I am here trying to figure out how to get you back home before Mom finds out and has a major fit,” Archie muttered. “Although truthfully, I would not mind if she blamed Dad for it, but that would be the last thing either of us needs.”

“I know,” Crystal muttered because she knew the relationship between their parents had worsened over the years. And now it was open warfare between them, which is why Archie had wanted to get out of town. Colorado had been a lifeline. Most of the country was still on its timeout due to the pandemic, and truthfully most of it had still not recovered, but he found a spot in Colorado that was hiring, and he was able to study at the university.

He had wanted to continue his education. Even if it meant leaving Claudia.

Although she would leave town herself months later…

So, he got all he wanted in Colorado, except that it was mostly on-line he thought. Which his shifty work schedule. It allowed him to pick up shifts all over the place. And therefore, he was sitting pretty, and why he could manage this trip.

Except he had not known what he had walked into. Because he was now in town he did not know, except maybe I should know it he thought but let those thoughts pass through his brain as he did not want to deal with that, because it meant dealing with stuff, he really did not want to deal with… I would rather figure out what to do with my sister. So, he turned his attention to an easy diversion from real life. “What are we going to do with you?”

“You don’t have to pay for this room,” Crystal muttered. Because the last thing she wanted was for her big brother to be putting himself out, even though she knew she was in no condition to help herself. I did it this time she muttered to herself.

“Can you?” Archie asked.

No Crystal murmured. But she was not going to own up to it. “I have Dad’s bank card and pass code.”

“Which you know better than to use,” Archie sighed. Because it would bring about a ton more difficulty. “You would never have reached here if you had used it.”

“Yeah, I know” Crystal agreed. Because there were certainly a lot of ways she could have been caught before getting to his destination, which meant that both of their parents were still in the dark. “So, what are you going to do to help me?”

“You stay here,” Archie murmured. “I will go grab you some ice for the fridge,” he sighed. “We’re order you some food.”

“Are you going to go back to Claudia?” Crystal asked.

“I don’t know what I am going to do,” Archie sighed because of how the circumstances had changed. It is just that no one else knew it he knew. I did not even know it he thought until I did, he sighed.

I do now.

And even then, he did not know the true story.

“Archie?” Crystal asked. As she had not seen her brother like this in a long time. Because she was used to him being sure of himself, this town had made him more private, she thought. She also knew he was a lot better since he left Boston. Even though she had missed him. Which is why she had come looking for her big brother even though it was a long trek.

“What?” Archie asked.

“What aren’t you saying?” Crystal asked.

“It does not matter,” Archie sighed because he did not want to see it. As he faced the door and went for that ice.

While Crystal was left wondering what had gone wrong with this situation, and if there was something she did not know.

Everyone should be wondering that.

*

Meanwhile,

Almost at the same time that Archie was leaving the motel room and heading for the ice machine. Maria and Lucy were headed on by in a car. “I am proud of you honey,” came Maria even though she knew it was only symbolic. “You were a big help,” she was murmuring to her daughter because usually she would have her husband for this duty, but he is getting ready for the mission I am setting him on she thought.

Isabel and Michael were due to leave the following day. But she had to be in Las Cruces to meet with her record company. She was still transferring operations from Nashville to New Mexico. So, it was still early days. And it was not like she needed Lucy as her eyes and ears, because she trusted her manager, and it was not because Lucy was old enough to truly be a check on the people in charge. But they knew by now that her daughter was unique in her ability to see the heart of an agreement and knew when they were trying to pull a fast one on her mother. Same with her father, which is why Maria usually had one of them with her. Usually, it was Michael. But he was busy, and it was a mother and daughter activity.

They had taken in breakfast in the big city. Once she had woken up from her little drunken fest with Liz at the motel. And managed to make it home, and therefore, she had got away much earlier than she should have and had to drag her daughter out of bed, and once they were done with her meeting, they done a little shopping before heading back to their new home. It was a different life than dealing with Nashville for the last two decades. Because Nashville was a music town. And you did not have to go far to meet with the executives.

For so long Roswell had been her home. She had not thought she would get out. I thought I would be sticking close to home, and not seeing the world and fortunately she had been wrong on that account and her life had been richer as a result, as well as my bank account she knew. As she looked over at her daughter who was just rolling her eyes at the praise coming from her mother because she had seen it before, and she had not thought of the morning adventure as an adventure. But it got her out of Roswell.

Just when she was getting used to the town. Sure, she had a track record but those were the summers she thought. “Yeah, no problem” Lucy said as she went back to looking at her phone. “You could have handled it without me.”

“Maybe I could have, but I am glad you could come with me” Maria sighed as she looked out at the road. They were almost in town. “Almost home.”

Home, right Lucy said simply. It is our home now, isn’t it, she thought. She muttered something under her breath and Maria only smiled because this had been increasingly rare given the past year’s developments, and because prior to that, her music career who had taken her away from home too often, and it had been Michael who had stayed home with Lucy as she got older and needed to be in school.

“Are you okay?” Maria asked. “You seem distracted?” she wondered because she had been noticing it since they left the house early that morning. “You can tell me anything?”

“I know I can,” Lucy sighed. “It’s nothing” she muttered. “Concentrate on your driving” she sighed as she looked back at her phone and before she went back to it, she spotted that they were driving past the motel that she knew Aunt Liz and JJ were staying in. “Aunt Liz is still at the motel, huh?”

“Yes, she is” Maria sighed. As if she did not know that her daughter was trying to divert her from asking for more actions, but it was something she was willing to do, for the moment she thought because she hated how confusing her best friend’s life was.

“Is she ever going back to the old place?” Lucy asked. Is Claudia’s life ever going to be normal? She wondered. Why am asking that, she wondered. Look at our life.

“Maybe one of these days,” Maria sighed as she wished that her friend’s life could be as simple as hers, Maria’s, was, because it was almost like they were in a role reversal in that Maria had gotten her dreams, while Liz had gotten the hard path. Life can be very weird, she thought. Not that I would want Liz’s life.

I am settled and happy, she thought. Only if I could get Lucy to concentrate on her own future she thought, then everything would be so much easier she sighed as she looked at her strong-willed daughter. Someone who looked very much like her, but she has a very Michael quality to her she thought as Lucy was looking out the window, as if she recognizes someone, and she started cursing. “What is it?”

“Stop the car,” was all Lucy demanded. To a startled Maria.

“What is it?” Maria asked as she stopped the car, but before her daughter could tell her what was going on. She had jumped out of the car and went racing up the stairs to the second floor of the motel.

A motel she had been at just that morning, but on the bottom floor. But her daughter was now going somewhere completely going. Maria was not going to leave her daughter alone, without an explanation.

So, she parked the car, and got out.

*

“What the hell are you doing here?” came a furious voice as Archie was muttering to herself that he knew he had to reach out to his girlfriend to tell her where he was, because this is not like me but there were reasons why he could not go near Claudia.

Not until I had my head in one piece Archie moaned. Because he was almost understanding how out to lunch Claudia had been since to this town, is this town doing a number on both of us? he could not help but wonder. Because it was a reasonable question. Still, as he was loading ice into bucket for his sister’s room. He knew once she was settled, he had to go back to Claudia’s apartment and figure out what to say, if there was anything to say.

He did not know.

Of course, he had not expected to be noticed or confronted, as if there was anything wrong with being here, he thought. He knew both of his girlfriend’s parents would have preferred it if I was here, instead over the Crashdown Café he muttered to himself. And I might end up here he thought. Because he did not know what came next.

He wondered if anyone did. Because he did not think so.

And that was before he heard the familiar tone of Lucy Guerin. He knew it well, even though they had only met once. She was that memorable, with that pixie hair cut he thought. She definitely had her own sense to her. Very different from Claudia. And he was seeing a different side to the blonde. “What do you want?” he asked, a little irritated. He did not know how Lucy had found him there, because no one knew where he was going. And he had not even known when he left the Crashdown Café.

“That is my question, precisely” Lucy muttered. “What are you doing here?” she asked as she looked around and wondered what room Archie had come from.

“It’s none of your business,” Archie muttered. “I don’t run my life through you.”

“No, you don’t” Lucy agreed. “But I care about Claudia, and if you are messing around on her.”

That is so far from the truth Arche laughed, and the smirk did not go over well with Lucy. “You are reaching.”

“Am I?” Lucy asked.

“What gives you the thought I might be messing around?” Archie asked. “I could have moved over here,” he asked because he knew it was probably the wiser move in all this. Moving over here. Even if I like the benefits of being with Claudia at her apartment.

And she is alone, most of the time she thought.

Claudia did not know when her mother would be back. It all depends on that little conversation I walked out of, for all I know. But still, he knew he would hit off better with both of Claudia’s parents if he did move over to her, but still that was another debate all together.

So, he was not in the mood for his girlfriend’s overprotective best friend. Someone who did not even know him or Claudia together. Especially when he had to deal with his teen sister. “Not now Lucy.”

“What are you hiding?” Lucy demanded. Knowing full well that’s he sounded too much like her father for once.

“Why would I be hiding anything?” Archie asked. “Got to go, the ice is melting.”

“Because…” Lucy asked before they heard a female voice. “Archie” came a docile tone of someone she had only met the day before. And she immediately got her heckles up, and her eyebrows up. “I knew it.”

Jesus Archie muttered.

While Maria was watching it from afar. Having no idea what was going on. What else is new.

[Parker1947]

Meanwhile,

Claudia and JJ were ever so slowly embarking on their adventure. Instead of a mission. It was mainly a walk and talk at the moment. With Claudia and Tripp talking, and Kyle and JJ observing. Kyle knew something was up with his son, but he did not know all the details and before he walked away. He figured he could observe. JJ on the other hand was just going with the flow of whatever was happening. That is my lot in life he thought, until I am old enough and I can deal with my own life.

Usually, he was fine with it because whatever happened to his older sister and his mother was juicy. And it was better than the life he had, and it was like a soap opera in action. He might be ten years old, but with a much older sister. He saw the soap opera world in action with the love lives of his sister’s group, so he had learned to stand and watch, and take it all in. You usually find a lot of gossip that way. When the gossip did not involve him, he was fine with watching it all in action.

Tripp meanwhile was being evasive as ever. He did not want to actually go there and question what Claudia knew of her boyfriend. Not that he had a lot of ground to ask anything. Only a few suspicions that might be groundless he thought. There was nothing really to keep track of, right? he wondered.

You never know and Tripp did not want to know, and because Claudia was using some diversion tactics to get away from whatever was happening at her apartment. She was not seeking out whatever Tripp wanted to know. Because like Lucy. She always did sense more was in the works because of her abilities. Not that I can be open to all my gifts she knew. She had learned early, take your time. Be aware. But I figured it was growing up a growing girl, with only a single mother, and a young brother who needed protecting.

Only later did she come to know so much about herself. And a lot of it was not so open, more under the surface. And she saw from her mother’s journal that it was from her father’s side. Even though her mother had leveled over those years before. But did not tell me much more than it did she thought.

So, she was blind in knowing everything. And it was not just my life’s story Claudia knew. “You haven’t told me what you know?”

“I know nothing,” Tripp muttered. I really don’t know anything he knew as he thought to himself.

That is me Claudia knew. “I have a sense about people. Mom tells me I am very perceptive,” Claudia muttered. “I did not why I was but coming to this town tell me a lot without really knowing anything at the same time.”

“This town will do that to you” Kyle muttered from a distance.

“Yeah,” Claudia muttered. “But I know when someone wants to tell me something, so how about it?” she asked as she looked at Tripp seriously. “I know you want to tell me something, so you might as well tell me.”

“It’s nothing,” Tripp sighed.

“Then I definitely think there is something” Claudia asked as she stopped walking. JJ did too and looked on. As if to protect his sister, even though it was his older sister who was doing the protecting in this instance.

Tripp did not know why he was doing this. He should just walk away. And stay out of the love life of Claudia, because it does not affect me so why am I bothering with any of this he thought. I know to have feelings would be the last thing I should want because she does have a boyfriend. And he certainly knew it served no one any good to hold out hope when someone was taken, I have seen Dad do it with Isabel he muttered, even when he was trying to move on, he thought, so why sentence that fate to me? he wondered. But still, Claudia was looking at him, and he could not help himself so he could not help but tread some dangerous waters. Against his best judgment. “How much do you know about your boyfriend, Archie?”

The mention of Archie’s name definitely stopped Claudia in her tracks. As her eyes turned into a storm and her eyebrows raised. Are you kidding me? she muttered to herself. Why is he even asking this she thought. In such a way? “That is none of your business.”

“Did you know that his name is not even Archie?” Tripp asked.

“Of course, it is his name?” Claudia muttered.

“Did you know that it is really Alex?” Tripp asked.

And the utterance of the name Alex changed the whole nature of the moment. And Kyle stopped in place, as he was truly sensitive about any mention of the name. He could not help but look at his son, and at Claudia who stopped, and he could see the anger in her eyes. Son, you have opened a hornet’s nest he thought.

*

Yes, the name Alex had a history and a lot of horror attached to the town of Roswell. And those who knew the original Alex were not completely recovered even though it was two decades since his death. Kyle certainly had a lot of baggage. And while he had grown to live with his actions during that time. Even if he could never totally live it down. Because he would never be able to totally sleep at night with of how he had been so betrayed and used in a manner that had not been something he would willingly have done, because of those actions, they would lose them a good guy.

All because he had been used.

And only the people close to him would know the truth. Because of the town of Roswell. Alex Whitman’s death was a senseless accident. Thankfully, not a suicide because of Liz’s crazed obsession with getting to the truth. No matter what it meant for her and, Max But the true story would not go down in the record books he knew. Because one could not write down those words because of the questions asked.

And it was one of the many ways his father had put himself on the line for their little group. And one of the reasons why Kyle never had the desire to follow in the footsteps of his father and his grandfather beforehand and become a lawman. Because there would be too much, I could not report what I saw he thought, not that I had a desire for the job anyways he knew.

Sports had been his driving passion. But I flamed out in high school because of injuries, and just not the ability to really go somewhere with it. And I found myself drawn into a very different group, he thought, even though unlike Liz, I would never change.

I stayed the same, but those years brought about a lot of chaos for him, and his father and he found himself changed by it. It did not help that dad lost his job for a time he thought. That meant I had to pay the bills. Sports became meaningless after that, and I just did not have the time he knew. I embraced Buddhism for a time he sighed.

But still, the name Alex was almost a curse that brought out so many conflicting emotions in those who knew Alex Whitman, and unfortunately Kyle’s association with the group would bring about a lot of angst, and he was forever changed by it. Even though he knew the name was common enough. It is pretty common these days he knew. Anyone could have the name and not be connected to our little story, he murmured to himself.

Thankfully they had not known another Alex. So, the name did not have to bring back memories. But because for so many people in their small fraternity, the name did conjure up a lot.

So, to hear the name again, brought a startle sigh to him. Tripp knew there were a lot of ghosts in his past. And while he, Lucy and Kyla knew a lot about their parents’ generation. Still, there was some stuff you rather not want to admit to your children. So, Tripp did not know the true grit of what went down.

But now there had been an Alex in their parent’s group.

Claudia did not know this. Although she by now had read her mother’s journal. So, she knew the normal. But she did not know the real pain behind what went down because there was so much Liz would not write down.

So, she would not think of anything more than annoyance at Tripp’s stance at trying to be protective with her. Which was insane to her, really, she thought as she looked with anger in her eyes. She might have a missing boyfriend at the moment. But still, I do not need to be questioned she thought. I know Archie. “Why does it matter if it was?” Claudia asked. Sure, she had not heard of the name, but she knew Archie was not her boyfriend’s given name. It comes from his middle name, which was common you know.

People often go by their middle names.

So, it did not ring any bells of suspicion in Claudia to know Archie went by his middle name, but a shortened version of it. Archie is much better than Archibald she thought. No wonder he picked the better form she thought once more.

“I wanted to make sure you know,” Tripp lamely suggested, and Claudia only shook her head and muttered.

“You don’t know him; you also don’t know me either” Claudia pointedly. “You might know my life story, but you don’t know me. So, you should not try to put doubts in my head about Archie. Because yes, I know, it not his legal name. But it’s the name he goes by. Because he does not like his first name.”

“Do you know why?” Tripp asked.

God Claudia muttered at the question. Kyle could only sigh in the back at the line his son was treading, a very fine one that would break apart very soon he knew. Why am I defending myself to this guy. Someone I don’t know…she would ask herself.

“Son,” Kyle murmured because he knew his son was on tricky terrain. “I am sure Claudia knows all she needs to know. She is right, you don’t know what is going on in their relationship,” he murmured because certainly I know there might be a lot behind closed doors that the outside world might know he thought. Because that was evident in his own life.

“I am just making sure you know,” Tripp sighed. “His sister is in town. Or someone claiming to be his sister.”

“Yes, I know” Claudia muttered even though she did not whether it was true. She was only going on the word of others…

“How?” Tripp asked.

“Son,” Kyle warned.

“My father,” Claudia muttered., and that answer forced Tripp to take a step back. “He mentioned that Archie’s sister was in town. Of course, that surprised me because she was not here when I last saw Archie. But it happens. People often show up, and I know he does have a sister. So, don’t try to be protective and get me think of him badly, because that is not your place,” she muttered as she looked at her little brother. “Come on JJ, we have to go and find Archie.”

“Right,” JJ murmured as she saw the perplexed but angry look on his sister’s face. It was not the look you wanted to see because the last thing you should do is cross Claudia’s bad side, he knew from fights between his mother and sister. Both of them can be pretty angry when given the chance, as he often had seen growing up in the same house.

“I am only trying to help,” Tripp murmured.

“Don’t,” Claudia muttered as she took her brother’s hand and led him away, and that only led Tripp to be left with his father.

“I probably went too hard, huh?” Tripp asked.

“Yeah, you did, just a touch” Kyle said with a smile. “Do you have any reason to be wondering what is going on with Claudia’s boyfriend?” he murmured.

“No, yes, no, I guess not” Tripp sighed. “Some girl came into town when I was talking to Lucy. We just happened to see her, and she said she was looking for her brother. Of course, Lucy, who is molded in the image of her father at times, could not help but be suspicious and I was fine, but then she indicated that she was looking for her brother, Alex. And then said that she was it was not his name. I was the one who was fine. Lucy was naturally suspicious,” he muttered. “So, I don’t know why I am so suspicious now, that I would bring it up to Claudia.” When Lucy wanted to be the one, he thought. Maybe I should have let it be Lucy who asked he thought.

“Son, you are jealous.” Kyle said because he knew all the signs.

No, I am not Tripp denied to only himself, and Kyle could not help but laugh when his son was not able to answer him. “Son, you are.”

“I know there is no chance for me, okay” Tripp muttered, however half heartly. “She clearly has a boyfriend, and he’s here in town visiting her, and they seem to be happy. Although I do not know them together, obviously,” he muttered to himself. “Still, it does not matter, so I don’t know why I just did I what I did.”

“Jealousy still happens even when you know you have no chance,” Kyle smiled. “Son, I know for a fact because it happened when I was with Claudia’s mother. We were nothing in the long run, and we were better off as friends, which is something we would develop over time, but I still could not help but be jealous, even though I was with her first” he would mutter to himself. Max came in and butted in… “I know what it means, to want something you know has very little chance of succeeding,” he sighed as he thought when he was smitten during senior year with Isabel. She was with Jesse, and happy, and would marry him, so it was very much of a case of knowing that I had no chance with her. “Still, you have to be careful. Because if you push too much, you stand to lose something special. Whatever that ends up being, friendship or something more” he sighed because he knew firsthand that he risked a lot early on with Liz, thankfully we ended up better friends than boyfriend/girlfriend he would think.

Tripp nodded.

“It could all be innocent. Lots of people go by their middle names,” Tripp said. “I mean, look at me.”

“Yes, look at you” Kyle said softly. Knowing full well that he and Sue Ann had given their son a name to live up too, for good and for bad because of how notorious Kyle’s grandfather was in some parts of this town. Still, given there was already a James even if Dad goes by Jim he thought, and even though his grandfather was deceased by the time of Tripp’s birth, he wanted to name his son after his family. But given the name, Sue Ann and I decided on something unique. Tripp it was…

“So, I am sure there is nothing to it” Tripp murmured as he came back to earth a little and thought there was no reason to question what Archie wanted to call himself.

Kyle could only laugh.

“Sure, son…” he said, and they stopped, and started walking seriously as they headed back home. With him leaving a text message on Liz’s phone, to call him to reschedule…

*

Tripp had come back to reality. But Lucy was still on this bent of being suspicious. And her mother was on the outskirts of the conversation that was developing. Clueless, what else is new Maria would think. She was not used to being out of the loop. She was an insider of a very prestige yet very small group. But she had spent the last couple of decades almost in another town and state, and therefore, she was coming to terms with how grown up her daughter was. Lucy was of a different age.

And just as suspicious as her father was before her Maria almost proudly would think. She was proud because it meant that her daughter was not going to take anything at face value. She was going to question. Seek out the whole story. Even if she tended to go on tangents that did not have a lot to go on, so Maria was watching… as her daughter was clearly going in a direction that did not have a lot there…

But how did Maria know?

She did not know.

As Archie did not know what had hit up, and he weakly demanded, “She’s my sister,” was all he would mutter because this was a situation he did not want to be dealing with. But it was at the same time one that he was, and yet he did not know why was dealing with it. Why is this happening he muttered to himself, as it was now himself, his sister and Lucy. Why did she put me in this position.

As there was nothing to be jealous of. “Step back Lucy,” Archie muttered.

“Don’t tell me what to do,” Lucy murmured as she glanced between Archie and Crystal. “I knew there was more to the story than a sister coming to look for her brother.

“You are reaching,” Crystal muttered. “I told you the truth. I came to find my brother. And see here he is, there is nothing to be jealous of or to be suspicious of.”

“I am not stepping out on Claudia,” Archie muttered.

“How can I be so sure?” Lucy batted back and Archie wanted to burst out laughing. And only stopped from doing so, by a lot of restraint because he knew that would not help the situation. Because the mere idea was outlandish.

“I love Claudia,” was all Archie would mutter.

“People in love step out on the person they love all the time” Lucy murmured. “There is an industry out there that promotes that kind of thing.”

“You would think I would come to your friend’s town and then cheat on her, when I could have stayed in Colorado and seen as many women as I wanted without Claudia being wise,” Archie smirked. “But that is not where I am at Lucy. Or who I am. Because I love Claudia. And I want to make things work with her, but Crystal here is my sister,” he muttered and when it looked like Lucy still was not buying what he was saying to her. “Seriously, it was the truth. Why would you think I would cheat on her. Crystal surprised me, that is all there is to her.”

“Then why are you out here?” Lucy as she had distrust clearly still on her face as she looked at both Crystal and at Archie. And wondered if there was more to the situation.

“I rented my sister a motel room,” Archie muttered and when Lucy looked like she was going to react. “She’s underage. She’s sixteen and no one would rent a room to a minor, so that is why I had to the one,” he muttered. “I did not think Claudia would want to have my sister in the apartment. Because it’s small, and that is why her mother and brother had moved over to a motel themselves,” he sighed, unsure if this was the one, they would be at.

He would not know.

But it was.

Plausibly Lucy was forced to think. But still she was suspicious “Where did you stay last night?” Lucy asked, suspiciously, to Crystal this time. As if she was willing the newcomer to like to her…

“With your grandfather. Sheriff Jim Valenti,” Crystal muttered with a smile because it definitely surprised Lucy. “Because your cousin, Tripp might not be as suspicious as you are,” she would sigh as she thought of Tripp Valenti because she knew what was what, and she had been around before, and therefore, she knew all too well that Tripp had used his grandfather as a safe haven to judge whether she was on the level. Without knowing the full story because she was clearly a stranger coming late into the story. “He took me to your grandparent’s home, and they allowed me to stay the night.”

Grandpa Lucy thought.

And Maria from the outskirts of the situation was clearly amused. Because her daughter definitely had not bargained for it, she is so much like Michael Maria thought proudly. Be it meant something to know that she and Michael had raised their daughter right, even if she is a little bit of a hot head she thought. But then she’s protecting her friend.

As she continued to watch her daughter battle.

Lucy did not know how to deal with this. Like what her mother was thinking. She was looking out for her friend. Still, though, on some level. She believed Archie. Because she knew how to read people, and usually her first assessment tended to be right on target, so she had never gotten a player reading off Archie.

“Why did you come?” Lucy asked.

“I told you and I told your friend, cousin or whatever he is, Tripp that I had a fight with my father, and I needed to get away. I was not thinking because obviously I would have been better prepared if I were, and I would have had money. But nope, I just acted. And I came to the place I knew my brother would be because he had commented that he had been planning on making a visit to his girlfriend this weekend,” Crystal muttered. “And I don’t know why I am having to defend myself to you, because I don’t know you,” she sighed. “Who are you?”

“A concerned friend,” Lucy muttered.

“Lucy Guerin, my sister, Crystal Holmes” Archie muttered. “Crystal, this is Claudia’s best friend Lucy Guerin.”

“Yeah,” Crystal asked.

“Yeah,” was all Lucy muttered. Still not sure she should believe any of this, even if it was plausible. And Archie did not have any reason to lie, because he is a right. Why come to this town and stray when he could have done to his heart’s content and Claudia would be unlikely to know, she thought, because it not like Claudia is leaving this town anytime soon, she sighed. There is too much that is outrageous in her life for her to want to leave.

No matter the temptation Lucy knew.

She knew she had to gravel a little. “I guess I should say sorry, because I reacted before I knew better” Lucy sighed as get glanced over at Archie, and probably should admire that he would be protecting his sister. “I know you do care about Claudia, but I care for her too and I know she has too much on her shoulders right now and therefore I don’t want anything to hurt her,” she murmured. “Because that is the last thing she needs.”

“I understand,” Archie sighed as he thought of his girlfriend with the knowledge that he had to get back to her, some way. “But my intention is not to hurt her,” he sighed, with the understanding that underneath all this was something bigger than even himself, and he did not even understand it yet, and he did not know how to handle it. “I would be with her if not for the fact my sister surprised me.”

Lucy nodded.

Archie hated how complicated it was for his girlfriend. “I know she has a lot on her shoulders. Because the one thing I can see very clearly is how mixed up she is, and I don’t want to add to that burden,” Archie sighed. “It’s just a family thing.”

Yeah, I know about family things Lucy sighed. They come in many forms.

“I am guessing I am going to need new ice?” Crystal muttered, coming back into the conversation and it got Archie to laugh, for the first time in a long time. And it also made Lucy laugh, and Maria from afar let out a deep breath. Things are settling.

Think again because Lucy did not know what she would be starting by asking a simple question.

“Why don’t you like your first name?” Lucy asked. “It’s Alex, right?”

Yeah it’s Alex Archie muttered, not really wanting to get into it or did he know why he was getting into it even now, when he should be thinking of how to get back to Claudia and then send his sister on her way back home before his mother gets on his case, or worse yet, his father rides him once more for influencing his sister to defy him, as if it is me who is corrupting my sister when it’s the old man he thought.

But that is another story.

“I don’t hate the name,” Archie muttered. “I just don’t use it,” he murmured. “I prefer my name.”

“You hate it Archie,” Crystal muttered right back from the side of her brother.

“No, I don’t” Archie said in response. “It’s just a name that does not fit me, and it’s not even my name on my birth certificate,” he muttered. “Mom and Dad just decided it fit me more than the name on the document.”

“You have a third name?” Lucy asked, incredulously.

“Yeah,” Archie muttered.

“Then what is it?” Lucy and Crystal asked together, because it was something that Archie’s sister did not even know. She knew her brother had disowned the name, Alex, and it had been given to him by their parents on his adoption. But still…

“It does not matter,” Archie muttered, not really wanting to deal with it.

“It’s interesting, tell us” Crystal asked, goading her brother.

“It’s Zan,” Archie muttered.

Holy Shit Maria muttered out loud from the outskirts of the conversation. She had been keeping herself quiet, and no one really knew she was there, or if they did, they were not paying attention so she had been observing and getting ready to summon her daughter so they could go home and prepare to say goodbye to Michael.

But this revelation as a game-changer, hell she muttered to herself and before she could restrain herself, “You are Tess’s son,” she said out loud. “But you cannot be Tess’s son,” she said in almost a daze.

As it came to her, and the blondish hair, although it was growing darker with age. But the essence was there, even though she did not the boy. She saw the resemblance. What the fuck she wanted to say, but she wisely kept mum. “You cannot be Tess’s son.”

Shit.

[Parker1947]

Meanwhile,

While all forces were colliding to unleash maximum carnage on those unsuspecting. Kyle did not know any better as once his son decided to do his own thing. Kyle could continue to do his own thing and catch a basketball game on television because there was no work to be had at the office. Despite the warm weather, and the month. There was a lull on, and he did not have much on the horizon as his clients were still mainly in a wait and see, and the early preliminaries in any project so he did not have do much, and in the past, it had allowed to catch up with his son, and for them to things together. But Tripp has his own life he would remark where did the time go? he wanted to know. Because obviously that was true given his son wanted to go off and pursue his own path. And there was nothing keeping his son at the office, given they were waiting to see what was happening with the Crashdown.

With the knowledge that that could be a job, but he knew his former girlfriend was too much in her own head and on top of that, she was dealing with her children, and added to that, was her ex-husband and therefore she had yet to really concentrate on getting the Crashdown Café remodeled and reopened. So that meant Kyle had time on his hands, and he did not want to be at home.

Because it was lonely being alone.

Having failed at three marriages. He had not been used to being alone. He went and found him a new relationship when one failed, but he was looking to make sure things were different this time around because he could not afford to have another failed marriage. It would not be good for my ego or for my bank account even if Sue Ann was fully off the payroll except the child support he was entitled to pay for the next year, or until our son finishes college. Although at eighteen, the money goes to our son assuming he goes on to college.

Which is something I do want because I know what it means for your life to be detoured from where you thought it was going, he mused. I was headed somewhere, and then Dad lost his job and the bills piled up, and therefore college was out.

And once a sports career did not pan out not that I was focused on it once the alien invasion happened to our family, he sighed. So, he wanted things to be different for Tripp and he figured that his son knew that, and Tripp did seem to have a wish to further his education. And therefore, he had a college fund which was something Kyle had not been able to say for himself.

My life detoured a little too much to think about college he would think.

He did not want that for his son.

Not if I can help it, and he figured that Tripp looked at least at this point as wanting to do something different than his father and even his mother had done. Which is good Kyle knowing, and therefore, he hoped his son found his way, no matter where it led, he thought. So, because he was on his own. And he did not want to deal with the paperwork that rested in his office at home.

He found himself walking a very familiar route.

Sighing, and wondering if he was only setting himself once more for failure, I should have learned my lesson when I was a teenager he thought. But he still found himself going the same route, because he was no longer a teenager, was he?

He had more invested, in ways he and Isabel were not recognizing at the moment.

I could change things, but changing things means opening myself up for failure once more because what if Isabel does not want things to change.

So, he decided to pay a visit to a friend.

Only a friend, and nothing more. Despite wishes once upon a time. While his son was doing his own thing, he was doing his own thing. And walked a familiar path and knocked on the door in front of him.

“What is it?” came a very familiar voice as the door swung open. “Oh,” she said as she saw Kyle. “Kyle, what are you doing here?”

“Can we talk?” was all Kyle would say.

*

Kyle walked into chaos. “Turn down the music Kyla,” was being yelled upstairs. As chaos was the only thing, he could describe it as he could hear the music blaring but then turned off, as he cautiously was let into Isabel’s house. A house she had made her own over the years since she bought it with the divorce settlement from Jesse. And it was one she had made her own with her marriage to Neil, and the arrival of the children who had filled the house with their laughter. And he knew only too well how those sounds had been dulled over the last months with Kyla gone.

And then the twins gone on their own little trip. So, Isabel had been alone. So, used to filling her time with being a mother. But the kids were growing up. Even the twins were now teenagers themselves, albeit only beginning to come of age. “What are you doing here?”

“Wanting to pay you a visit,” Kyle asked.

“Well, unfortunately, you decided to pick the worst time to come by” Isabel said with a smile with a grumbling Kyla walking downstairs and stopping when she saw Kyle. “Oh,” she would say as she stopped on the door.

“Hello, Kyla” Kyle would say. As he spotted the link that cannot be talked about as he looked between mother and daughter. “Having fun?”

“You could say that” Kyla murmured. Unsure of what to say given the unusualness of their bizarre situation, what am I supposed to say?

She did not know.

Neither did Kyle or Isabel. Because they had let this situation persist with time even though it was obvious that Kyla was too old and did know. And she was getting older by the day, and it would eventually have to mean something more than it did today.

“Have you finished packing?” Isabel would only ask. Because she was all too aware how strange this situation was, I guess we did not think of this day back in the beginning when I took up the offer. “We have to leave first thing in the morning?”

“I know,” Kyla muttered. “I am sick of packing. I have been doing that for too long. So, I am going out and seeing some friends,” she murmured. “Discreetly,” she said as her mother only gave a look because given the state of the world. Not everyone was open to full roaming around the town limits for their children, so Kyla was finding ways to see her friends that was not about using a video screen.

“You have to pack?” Isabel muttered.

“Did you not hear me. I am almost finished,” Kyle muttered. “Anyways, I am only going to be across town,” she muttered. “If I forget something. I can always come back and grab it, okay, you should be the one who is more concerned,” she sighed as she grabbed her coat and purse. “Be back later.”

“Be back for dinner,” Isabel called.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah” was all that Kyle and Isabel would hear as the teenager would leave the house. Confusing Kyle all the more because it was obvious, he had not heard of the latest change to Isabel’s plans, or Kyla’s temporary relocation. “What is going on?” he would ask when they were now alone. “What is this about packing?”

“Oh,” Isabel sighed. Realizing that she had not told Kyle that she was leaving. It seems everyone knows but Kyle she realized. It was all so sudden she thought, even if time seems to be going so slowly, she thought. “I should have told you.”

“What is going on Isabel?” Kyle asked.

“I am leaving town,” Isabel muttered.

What the hell Kyle thought as he fought the urge to say something, but he had enough restraint to know that was not how he should be realizing. “What is going on?” he asked as he fought for Isabel to tell himself that would make sense. Has everything changed?

Yeah, it would seem like that, doesn't it?

But it was simpler for Isabel. But Kyle would not know that. And she did not know how to say it, even though it was a very simple situation. “Something has come up, and I have to go out of town for a while.”

What the fuck Kyle would think. Because still it did not make sense because Isabel had all the time to go somewhere else when Kyla was gone. Now she’s back, and Isabel is leaving. And what is this about Kyla being across town?

Obviously, I need to know.

He did.

“Isabel?” Kyle would ask.

“Poppy and Katy need to be picked up in Portland,” was all Isabel could say to start.

“Maine?” Kyle asked, because he did know where Isabel’s other daughters were. Visiting their paternal grandparents. Kyla would be there too if not for the fact she had the European exchange all semester.

“Yes,” Isabel murmured.

“I thought they had a chaperone?” Kyle asked. Because he was aware that Isabel’s friend had taken the kids with her, what was going on?

“They did,” Isabel murmured. “But my friend has to stay where she is, because of her father’s illness, and therefore she cannot come back yet. And therefore, I have no one to pick up the girls, and bring the girls back. And with flights the way they are, I have to go get them myself.”

“Oh,” Kyle sighed. That is slightly better.

One slightly he thought at the thought of Isabel leaving town. Which is something she had rarely done. Since coming back to Roswell in the wake of graduation and her split from Jesse.

“So, you are going to Portland, Maine to pick up Poppy and Katy?” Kyle asked as she steered his brain back to the conversation at hand. Something that would change things for a while, and in ways he was not too comfortable with…

“Yes,” Isabel murmured.

“Kyla?” Kyle would ask.

“She will be staying with my brother and my father,” Isabel sighed. Knowing full well that it was not the best situation at the moment because open warfare was possible at any moment in the household, but the hope was that Kyla’s stay would lead to some kind of ceasefire.

“Is that really the best situation, for your daughter?” Kyle asked because he was aware of the situation and Isabel knew Kyle knew all the gory details of what was going on in her family. Our family she thought because after all, despite how odd this is, we are family in a strange kind of way she knew. We don’t speak of it, but we are.

“It’s the only solution I have,” Isabel murmured.

“You could have asked me?” Kyle asked. “Tripp is not always at my place. He comes and goes, so I do have the room.”

“Your place is a bachelor paradise,” Isabel smiled, and Kyle had to laugh because that had the house he had grown up with his father, once his mother had left them and he knew since the end of his last marriage, his place had sort of gravitated into a form of what he grew up. It is only Tripp and me now.

No female to brighten things up. And sometimes he had gravitated to that mindset since his most recent split. So, Kyle was forced to nod.

Isabel knew full well how complex their situation was. Hers and Kyle. It was sitting there waiting to be explored, but it had not been. And neither has caused it to be explored, and or to change the situation that existed for them. She also knew she had been leaning on Kyle over the last years since Neil’s death. As a buffer, a companion at times. A friend whose shoulder was pleasant.

Especially as the kids were getting older, and especially once Kyla had headed off. And even before, given how emotionally draining the past year had been, the world going insane in more ways than just simply one.

“But the door is well, open” Kyle murmured.

“I know it would be,” Isabel said with a smile. “And I would have taken you up on the offer that I knew would have come my way if really, I had no other option. But I do, and my father offered, and the chance exists that Kyla can be a buffer of sorts for my father and brother.”

“Is that the position you want for Kyla?” Kyle would ask. Of his namesake, and so much more even though Isabel would say to her face was blue that it was not simply Kyle she was naming her daughter for, it just happens you could round down the name to such a form of a name…

Yeah, I know… Isabel sighed as she concentrated on the issue at hand. “I wish I did not need to use her as one. I wish that I could know for a fact that my brother could be adult at the moment with my father but given the situation, and given Max is not entirely out of line with how he feels.”

“I know,” Kyle sighed, of the situation. One that was messy, and sticky for any family.

“Dad offered, and Kyla is old enough to maybe be the support system that both will need” Isabel said softly. And Kyle nodded. “And I don’t know how long I will be gone.”

“It will be only a couple of days, right,” Kyle asked. “In and out?”

“Nope,” Isabel shook her head. “I really don’t really know,” she said honestly. “I cannot fly.”

“Why not?” Kyle asked. “The airports are open.” In most cases he amended himself.

“But the flights are scarce, and I needed something quickly” Isabel murmured. It was not like she could schedule it for the following month. She needed something quickly, and nothing was available, and she was not willing to pay the exorbitant costs for a last-minute flight. “So, I am going to drive.”

“You are going to drive across the country?” Kyle wondered.

“Yes” Isabel nodded, slightly amused at the surprise in her friend’s voice. “But I will have some company,” she murmured with the eyebrows on Kyle raising, and she knew there could not be many other candidates given she just said that her daughter would be staying with her father and brother.

“Who?” Kyle asked.

“Michael,” Isabel murmured. “I figured that Maria was really the prime instigator of it, but I could not get him to stay home once he was on the scent,” she murmured. “Personally, I don’t think I need a companion. I am do have the ability to handle such a trip, myself.”

I know you do, Kyle murmured because he was well aware of how special Isabel was. And that she was quite capable to dealing with her own safety. But a long road trip is not like going upstate for shopping trip or something…

“I know what you will stay” Isabel sighed.

“Do you?” Kyle wondered.

“You will say that it is a long trip and I need someone.”

Yes, you do Kyle murmured but he was not going to say because of how it might come out. And he was not ready to vocalize it. And he knew full well that Isabel was not ready to hear it otherwise they would have done something about their connection and both of them knew it, and neither knew how to handle it.

“You could have asked me to go with you?” Kyle said softly. Almost too softly.

But Isabel caught it, and she smiled.

“As a friend,” Kyle was quick to say.

Yes, as friends they would both think. “You could have asked me. Why Michael?” Kyle asked because he knew that Michael had just come back to town, even though it seems like he has been around a long time he told himself. But it has only been a few days.

“He was available,” Isabel murmured. “You need to stay here,” she sighed. “You have your business.”

“Which is at a low point at the moment,” Kyle sighed. “I am between jobs.”

“Yes, you are” Isabel nodded. “But you have to keep finding jobs to keep the roof over the head and to pay for your son’s support,” she murmured. “I don’t know how long I will be gone. And Michael is in between jobs himself, and he has the ability to take the time because he is still setting things up, and nothing is permanently set.”

“I guess,” Kyle muttered I really don’t think my financial situation is that hard done by, he would think to himself. But he knew he was not at the level of 2001 yet when his father had hit bad times, but he knew his bank account was not flowing with money. “I could have taken time to help you?”

“I appreciate it,” Isabel smiled. “I really do, but I have to do this and this way you can be back here, and you can keep an eye on Kyla for me, because even though I have confidence that my brother and father can commit to a ceasefire while she is on the premises, but still they are human, we all are human and who knows what will actually transpire, and this way you can be there if Kyla does need someone and she cannot reach me.”

Kyle knew that was slightly better. At the thought of being able to keep an eye on Kyla. Which was something he had been known to do on occasion, from afar in the past year. Ever since Neil died, and before the teenager would head over to Europe. She was a good girl he knew. Unlike me who at that age was more out of control. “I definitely can do that,” he said. “So, you don’t have great hopes for that ceasefire?”

“What do you think?” Isabel asked.

Kyle laughed because they both knew the answer. But one has to have hope, right they would both think. “I still think…” he murmured but stopped.

“I know you do,” Isabel said, knowing what Kyle would have said. “And I appreciate it, but this really is the best course of action. You will know how to reach me, if something does happen, right?”

“Right,” Kyle sighed.

“Thank you, Kyle,” Isabel smiled.

“You are welcome,” Kyle murmured. “Maybe Max will be too preoccupied by Liz to be so open with his hostility with your father?”

“What do you mean?” Isabel asked. “Max is staying away from Liz at the moment.”

“Think again,” Kyle murmured.

Oh god, Isabel murmured. “What now?”

“Well…” Kyle sighed.

*

Meanwhile,

While Armageddon was colliding over at the motel, where she should be right now, with her son. Although for her sanity, it might be best she was not, and Isabel and Kyle were doing their own little dance. Max and Liz were in the middle of their bubble. For eternity it would seem as they were still at the Crashdown Café. Or shall we say, above it.

In the clouds in a matter of speaking. Not wanting to wake up. And yet they had too. Whether they wanted to or not. Although they were not to ignore all. That especially went for Liz, because she knew what Max likely had to have discovered due to their connection. Which was always unexplainable.

She knew Max would ask. She needed to divert, although she also had known that she had been able to keep most of it at bay. But he would be on the scene, she knew. So, as her eyes opened. She eyed where she was. She looked the room over. It was the forbidden zone when they were teenagers, but it’s my room, except it’s not right now she knew. So, as Max slept, or she assumed he was sleeping.

She did not want to find out. Because she did not want to wake him up.

But what was paramount was that knew that they had to stop this. We have to stop this endless cycle between us even though it has been eighteen years since we saw each other.

She felt the movement of the bed, Max was awake she knew. “You are actually leaving your own room?” came a sound as she had tried to carefully move out of the bed, and leave Max. And she was forced to look back at her very sexy former husband in the bed. Someone she only knew before the last few days, when they were younger.

Much younger.

We are too old now, she thought. For this drama too she knew. We are not teenagers anymore. Which is how she would remember her former husband. As sexy and mysterious eighteen-year-old when they had their first time. And then nineteen when she walked away for the last time.

Until last week.

And now they are back in the old cycle, but it was a new cycle. But she was trying to walk away from it. Yet, this is my apartment, she thought as she glanced at the very much older version of that mystery boy that had captivated her attention. He has grown up.

So, have I.

We definitely are not teenagers anymore she muttered to herself. You left here, and you would leave the one-time boy in her bed she was reminded. As she turned around in the robe, she had forgotten to take it with her to the motel. She had not thought that she had unpacked enough to forget anything in the apartment when she and JJ headed over to the motel.

“Max?” Liz sighed. Because looking at him was like visiting her teenage years all over again. Specifically, ages 15 to 18, before changed between them, before we became adults she thought. Seeing him and those eyes melted her, and she did not have any resistance. Which was weird given she had run. She had left.

I walked away she would think. For eighteen years. And now I am back, and we are back in this cycle.

“What?” Max batted back, still in bed.

“This is not going to work,” Liz murmured.

“I think it has worked out tremendously,” Max said softly. And Liz rolled her eyes. “We could keep doing it?”

I wish I could “Claudia could be home anytime.”

Max nodded. “I am sure she is keeping her brother company, and probably does not want to come back here,” he muttered. Even though he did not know what he was doing, I should be running as far away from this he thought. I should not be discouraging Liz from doing it, he thought. But Liz was Liz.

And I have a chance with her.

Even if it was miniscule Max thought. As he saw the doubt in her eyes. And the fear too, because of too much unsaid. They still had not talked about anything that meant something to the past. He wanted to but knew it would send her going. “If you don’t want too, we could talk?” he asked as she remembered the images rolling around in her head, a horror show that I have yet to grasp he knew. And he knew his former wife was quite adept at the ability to control what he saw.

Because they had to learn that the hard way. If we wanted to work together, and because in those early days, so much was undefined. So, both of us knew who to build a wall. But of course, I knew more than Liz did.

So, I was better able to hide but Liz was always able to see behind the wall he would think. She was not as easy to hide her own emotions.

So, Max knew she would not want to talk. Which is exactly what Liz did not want to do, as she said as much. “I don’t want to talk either,” Liz sighed. Because the last thing she wanted to do was talk about what she was trying to avoid. And it was not like Max knew everything because the passion between them was known to blur everything. And they were eighteen years apart. And she was now an adult. And had to be reasonable. Although I have a hard time being reasonable with this man. “I have to think about Claudia,” Liz murmured.

Max’s eyebrows raised. As well as his ire. “Are you saying I am not thinking about our daughter?” he would ask, and Liz groaned. She knew she had said the wrong thing, and therefore she had stepped into it this time, with Max getting out of bed, tying the sheet around him. And looking way too sexy. Way too sexy she muttered. “Because all I have done for the last eighteen years has been thinking about our daughter. About the fact you left with her. I might have allowed you. But never did I have a chance to know her, because you did not let me.”

“Max,” Max muttered.

But it was too late. The bandage was off the wound, yet again. And he could not be silent, now right now. And a conversation taken off the table was now back on it. “You could have come back. When everything was said and done, you could have come back. Our daughter might not have been a baby anymore, but she was a little girl and you stayed away. You want me to ignore that?” Max asked, even though I am ignoring it he thought because I be focused on and running away from this, but I am engaging in it.

“I am not asking you to ignore it,” Liz sighed.

“Yes, you are” Max muttered. “You stayed away. You got yourself a new life. I get that you had to stay away those years even if I don’t really get it. Maybe I will never get it, but you say you did it for the greater cause, the safety of all of us, and there is probably a lot of truth to it, even if I don’t want to admit it.”

“There is every bit of truth in it,” Liz muttered.

“But at a certain point Claudia is right, when I heard her ask, why stay away?” Max asked. “You could have come back to town. The hunt was over for us, you were free, right, and yet you stayed away, and you went on with your life, you started a new life?”

“It was too late,” Liz muttered. I could not come back, she thought ever so weakly because she knew she should have come back. But she stayed away. Taking the opportunity for Max to know his daughter while she was growing up in her formative years.

Her former husband bristled at that suggestion. “It was never too late to know my daughter,” Max sighed. Hopefully it is not too late now, he would think. Because with everything in him, he wanted that chance now… But now, his daughter was not the little girl she could have been if only Liz had come back when all was clear. Instead, she chose to stay away.

“Max,” Liz murmured. Knowing full well that she was the one guilty in all this. She should have come back, I should have come back she admitted to herself, but I was scared. It was the truth, she thought as she thought of what it meant to come back after so long. “I hope you know that I hated staying away.”

“Are you sure?” Max asked. “Because you sure were so good at it,” Max muttered.

I know I was. “Yes, I know I was” Liz agreed.

Because she got her start as a teenager. Which meant running away was her specialty. But at a certain point. You stop running. And therefore, she had to admit the truth. She had to tell him…

If the last few days are any model.

“I was scared,” was all she could say.

Scared Max thought. That was not something he had expected to hear from his former wife. Okay, I did earlier with the conversation I was listening to, that was between my daughter and her mother he thought. It had not made any sense at the time, and it still does not. “Why would you have been scared?”

“Of you.” was all Liz could say.

“Of me,” Max said softly. Too softly. Spooked.

[Parker1947]

Spooked. Because Max certainly was. Only because he never wanted to think that his former wife, and before that, his girlfriend was actually scared of him. Because she was the only woman he would ever love. For most of his life here on this planet. From those the very beginning. When they both were in third grade together. Until now, today, so many years later he thought. So, it spooked him to have to think that she is scared of me? he would ask himself. Why, he wanted to know. So, he could not help but ask once more. “Why, Liz” he asked, and willed an answer that he could live with…

“Max,” Liz sighed. Because she knew the impressions, she was leaving with him.

“You said it, not me” Max muttered as the mere words will scar me, he thought. “I scare you.”

“Not per se,” Liz sighed. I did not mean it like that. Because she hated this situation that she was in. Why am I constantly in it? she wondered. Why could this not have been easier.

But easy was never our thing. Max and I were always complicated.

And we gravitate back to each other, despite our best efforts she would think as she looked at her dark hair mystery guy. The one who had held her heart since that fifteen-year-old who entered a world she was not bargaining for, and yet she was captivated. And still, she found a way to walk away, and yet, here I am.

“We are complicated,” Liz murmured, quietly.

And Max could only laugh because yes, he knew that they were complicated. We are way too complicated and yet we work, right? he would ask himself. Ever since that day in the playground when as a newcomer to this land. He set his eyes on the pretty brunette, and he was taken, and it never made sense. It still does not when I should have wanted someone else, he thought, someone like me.

Who wanted me.

But I did not want her, Max muttered to himself. Okay, I went there he knew. And I lived to regret every moment he thought of the choice he had made. Sure, Liz had pushed him, but I was not forced. I went there willingly, he thought. I probably was not thinking rationally at the time, but that was a whole other story he murmured to himself. But he would always regret that he had gone there. Especially since he had been fooled so much by the blonde. As he wanted to shake that time out of his thoughts, because the baggage is too much.

“I think I know what we are” Max murmured.

Liz nodded.

“We have managed before to cut through the chaos, and the noise, have we not?” Max asked as he knew of those times that they had managed to get it all to gel, and to work. Maybe we did not last, but we made our attempts he would think and know.

“We also got swallowed up by it too,” Liz murmured but Max not caring that he still looked very sexy in her sheet, and she had to look away. Because images came to her mind, more pleasurable ones than the alternative, but still, I should want more than this.

Sex was never the issue between us he knew. Their passionate displays as chaste teenagers exploded when they finally were able to take the step. Which made it impossible for her to leave, that psychic was right, she muttered to herself as she remembered the voice in her head who told her that things would have been good for them, unfortunately I had to set a course that would change us she thought. Forever.

It would allow her the ability to one day leave, despite never being found to be wanting with Max, she sighed. And now I am back…

“Liz,” Max asked.

“Max,” Liz said back.

“I love you” Max murmured. Saying the words, he wanted to say, and the ones that Liz did not want to hear. But they were his truth. And there are no past tenses in this one, because nothing will change how much I love her he would think. But it was not something he knew that his former wife wanted to hear. No matter the years, and the distance. Their connection was unmistakable, and yet it was that word again, complicated.

And he knew it, and he should want more for himself than falling again for a woman who had hurt him. And walked away and took his child away from him.

But she did it for a reason Max knew.

Rationalizing it because of his feelings and seeing the woman he loved. The woman he was married to, for a brief time, but still, we said our vows. And I meant them.

I did.

Whether she did, he was not so confident even though she would say she did. “I love you.”

Liz bristled at the talk of love. Because she was not insane enough not to understand that she did not love her former husband. After all, she did, I do, because no one could match the love and the intensity that she had with the boy that saved her life at fifteen. Even when she left. She did not leave for another guy or want one. Because sure, those first eight years. Being celibate was a matter of safety because why would I put a guy through my life, she thought when she had a bodyguard. She would have rather not had to deal with it, or to explain it. She already had enough difficulty with working and going to school.

Trying to get people not to ask questions. For a social person in her youth. She became more of a social outcast in those years. Staying in her shell. Only coming out once the bodyguards were gone, but even then, she had enough baggage that she could not totally be open. But she was allowed to, and she was able to open up, and have friends and a job, and finish her education without the questions coming.

She could tell herself she was a different person, even though her daughter was able to take back her rightful name, and she took back her maiden name because she had walked away from Max. So, she did not feel as if she had a right to the name, Evans, but she did not want her daughter to miss out, even though she knew she was a little insane, since they had come back to Roswell.

She had stayed away, as Max was now accusing her of doing.

“I don’t want to talk about feelings,” Liz murmured.

“Why not?” Max asked.

“Because this is just today,” Liz said. “Tomorrow is something else, and I cannot do this anymore. I cannot do this to you?”

“What if I want it?” Max asked as he stood before Liz with his heart out in the open. Any talk of her scaring him was drowned out and treated as a diversion. “I love you, Liz. I love you today. Just as I loved you back in third grade before I even knew what love was. I loved you all those years when you did not give me the time of day. When I had to sit in the Crashdown and see you work and laugh with Maria or even date Kyle. I loved you at fifteen, sixteen and especially at eighteen when you became my wife.”

“Max,” Liz sighed as she felt herself melting, seriously melting. “Please don’t do this.”

“Why not?” Max asked. “I love you.”

I love you too, Liz cried inside, to herself. “But this does not help anything to go back into the past, when we have to think of the future. And of our daughter. She matters more than any feelings we have for each other.”

“So, you love me too?” Max asked, as hopeful as ever.

“Max,” Liz asked, pleadingly because she wanted to be stronger than this, but she knew deep down she really was not. Not even close…

Because this was Max. And she was who she was, and there was never going to be anyone else.

“I love you,” Max said softly as he moved forward, and touched her, and she felt her blood sizzle by the mere touch, God, please no she muttered. “Claudia.”

“She’s not coming back yet,” Max said softly.

“How do you know?” Liz asked, trying to think of any reason to stop this.

He did not know. He was only playing the odds, and the odds were good that he had time on his hands to try to convince her to, I don’t know what, because he did not know what he wanted. I am probably going a little insane.

With so many battles on many fronts. But I need something to keep me going.

And I have a daughter who might want me as part of her life, and a father who I have to live with despite the fact that he hurt me, and yet there is this woman that I love. This sexy woman who was my whole heart and has that same heart to this day Max thought. Even when I should I know better “I love you.”

“Please, Max, stop talking” Liz murmured.

“Then stop me,” Max said softly. Teasing his former wife. Getting her to respond. And so, she did find a way to respond. As she touched the sheet, and down it went, and he smiled.

“I love you.”

“Stop talking,” Liz sighed as he leaned, and they fell into a passionate kiss. Because she did not want to hear the words, I just wanted to feel.

“Make me,” Max said as she just did that, as she pushed him back on the bed, and climbed on him, and they both gave in to their overwhelming desire for the other.

“Just no talking about love…” Liz demanded.

Max could only laugh, as they both gave into each other… Because they both knew that denying it was a fool’s errand because love was there between them, and it will never go away. But it was not something she wanted to hear. Even though it existed, and there was no denying it because too much had been done and they should have been able to walk away, for good, but here they were.

Reliving their youth…

“Liz,” Max murmured but Liz drowned out the words he wanted to say, with kisses.

[Parker1947]

Meanwhile,
Roswell Motel,
Upper Level

Claudia looked shocked. JJ was beside her. Tripp was on the other side of things. And they had stumbled onto a shocking revelation that had grown dormant because of other events, but nothing would shock her like this, nothing could even come close, as she walked into a landmine waiting to explode.

As she thought back to earlier… to how she got to this point, even though it was a few little encounters…

Earlier

Max and Liz gave into their all-consuming desire for each other. One that did not have any sanity to it. Given their location and knowing that they could be busted at any time. By their daughter. But still they continued at it, while at the same time…Their only child was at loose ends. In more ways than simply today. She also knew better than to go back home, to the Crashdown, after all, that is my home, she muttered. But she was unable to get her mother on the phone. Which told her a lot, and I want to plug my ears and hold my nose while I was at it. And she was unable to find her missing boyfriend. This is my town, not Archie’s, she muttered. Why is he so hard to find?

Of course, she was not looking at the most obvious spot because she did not know that was an obvious place. Sure, she knew his sister was likely in town even though she had seen the girl yet, I am only hearing second or third hand she muttered. But it had led her to go to places that were very cold, and not hot even though she had a keen ability to locate people. But it was not turning into anything of any use So, she was continuing the mission that was not working out the way she wanted. But because her mother was busy, yes, she was. She knew had to keep her brother company.

While she had been used to this in the past, when they lived in Boston and before she ended up spending five months in Arizona. Still, it was a brand-new town. For both of them, although it was becoming a town, she was slowly getting used to it. Same with JJ. He knew when his sister had things on her mind. And she was distracted, and she was certainly distracted today, but I am a game for this adventure because it is leading us to go all over time he muttered. He did not have anything to do, and it was better than going back to the motel and sitting in his room and watching television or staring into the computer screen and finishing his end of year schoolwork because his mother had registered him a in a modern, progressive school back in Boston.

That had many different ways to teach their students, and what they would learn. JJ did not care about the curriculum, but he cared that he had to do it through a computer screen, and he hated it. He loved playing games. He did not like having to learn lessons at the same time, and instead of play time.

And away from seeing his friends. He was slowly making new friends here in town, so he was getting used to it. Like his mother, he was hoping he could actually attend school in the fall. Not be on-line all the time.

Claudia excelled in it, but I did not even though I am a modern kid he thought.

Growing up in a different age, and now, in a different world that was supremely different than even a year before.

JJ did not, so he was enjoying this adventure. Even though it was not succeeding like he knew his sister wanted, they ended up looking at an older establishment. “You cannot think Archie would be here?” the ten-year-old asked of his older sister and knew his mother would have fit if he knew that her son was here.

But it was always a case, what Mom does not know will not hurt her.

“Claudia?” JJ asked.

“What is it?” Claudia muttered.

“You are zoning out you know,” JJ murmured. “And I was asking. You really think Archie is here?” he was asking of the place; they were looking at. “I don’t think Mom would be that thrilled to know we are here.”

Me either, Claudia knew. Because she also knew she had taken her brother to some interesting places back in Boston, but this one might take the cake. Because she did not know why she was even here because she did not think Archie would be here. Not if his sister was in town, but I don’t know if she is really here, do I?

But he is older than me, and if he does not want to be found? Would he not seek something out, more worldly? She wondered. Because she knew he had a whole different life in Colorado. One that did not include him. We live in a what we don’t know, won’t kill our relationship she muttered. So, who knows what he does in Colorado.

This really was a spur of the moment idea. Something that seemed a good thing at the time. Because she did not know why she had ended up here, to be honest. She felt herself coming here. She saw the signs, on the way. As she used her trusty credit card and got themselves a cab and drove on out.

Because I did not want to drive, and Mom had the other car. Although, she is not using it, right now, but I figured I would stay in town limits. So, she was willing to turn around every corner in this task to find her boyfriend, because she had yet to hear from him.

She did not know what that meant. He was here to see me, and he knew I would worry.

Just like he worries about me.

So, it was more than a little annoying not to be able to find him. If we would just answer his text or phone calls or check his messages for that matter, she told herself, but that would not be done now, as she entered Cow Patties.

This is some joint Claudia would mutter.

“I know you,” came a voice of a female. Someone Claudia would not know, but someone who had history with both of her parents, although it was a lot kinder history than say her duplicate. Someone she was still having to live down. Even if most would not remember Tess. But a certain population in this town certainly does, and I have to live down certain reputations with them, but we have been able to exist at the same time.

Claudia did not know who this woman who stopped when she saw Claudia walk in.

“Who are you?” Claudia asked. Because she did not recognize the red head. Sure, she was a newcome to this town. So, she only knew so many people. But there was no chance she had known this woman before her, as the red head was looking at her with a hint of amusement in her eyes. Claudia did not know what to make of it.

“Someone who would know you anywhere,” came the answer. “Because you are Claudia Diane Evans, are you not?” she asked. “I know your parents.”

Such a coincidence because my name sure pre-arrives me on the scene Claudia muttered, even though she had to wonder as she saw the red head looking at her as if she was accessing her, trying to make notes of her. Claudia did not know if she liked that or not. Because she hated people making judgments on her, although it was not every day that she encountered someone who knew both of her parents. Usually, it was knowing her mother.

Because her mother left a shadow because of her impressive career. The kind of shadow that made it hard for Claudia to live up too, and she had yet to know what she wanted to do with her life.

When all she wanted was to be me.

So, for someone to know both of her parents. It was a new experience for Claudia. Therefore, she did not know how to take it. “And you are?” Claudia asked once more. Hoping this time to get an answer.

“Ava Evans,” Ava said and when Claudia looked surprised, and even shocked. “Don’t worry, not that kind of Evans,” she said with a smile. “We are not related,” she said with assurance. “I would never go there so you don’t have to worry. Your father is very taken by someone else,” she would mutter. “Your mother,” she said with assurance. “I married another Evans, because there are always other people named Evans in this world,” she said with a smile. “When I was away from this town. Rick Evans of Florida,” she said. “I did laugh for a moment there, that it was some funny coincidence because I am the one who did not want your father.”

“Why not?” Claudia asked, surprised to find someone who had history with her family. One that was not a close friend that she would have known.

“Let’s say I had someone else that I wanted, that was not meant to be” Ava murmured as she trailed off as she thought of Zan. “And it was obvious from the first moment in this town. Your mother was the one who wanted your father, and your father wanted your mother. Unfortunately, the world would not allow them to be together, without a fight.”

“They still did not end up together,” Claudia muttered.

“I know,” Ava sighed. As she felt for both Liz and Max, because Liz was my friend she thought. Ever so brief she thought. Because she knew the oddity of the situation in that she looked like the girl who wanted to steal away the boy Liz loved. But I liked Liz. “I liked your mother. And your father. But I would never have wanted to go there. Too much trouble. And there was someone else I wanted, but he was taken from me,” she sighed as she remembered Zan.

The original Zan she muttered. Okay, maybe not so original. But the duplicate Zan. Is that better?

Someone else who had died before his time. Although with Rath and Lonnie as his influences, he probably was not long for the world. And especially given that they are the ones who killed him.

Ava was still sore about that, even decades later.

Claudia would not know any of this.

“So, how can I help you?” Ava asked. As she spotted JJ. “Afterall, it is not the most desired place for a young boy,” she murmured as she pinpointed JJ as the boy that Liz had adopted once away from Max, and away from this town.

“It’s only a pitstop,” Claudia muttered. Because she knew her mother would have a very loud take on the fact her daughter had brought her son to such a place.

Ava laughed. “Thankfully, it’s early, and the regulars are not in yet” Ava said with a smile. “I run this place.”

“You do?” Claudia asked.

“Yes, I do” Ava murmured.

“Cool,” Claudia murmured.

“Yes, it is” Ava sighed because she was happy that she had been able to find her calling, here in this town. Once the divorce happened, she was restless and all she knew was that she had to get away from Florida and her ex. She was happy to come back to Roswell, and make a home here, and little by little she was being accepted, even by the group that has doubts about me “So, again, how can I help you?”

“Claudia is looking for her boyfriend,” JJ piped up. Curious about the red head, and this place. Because it was sure different than anything he had seen before…

“Oh, she is, is she?” Ava asked. “Name?”

“Archie Holmes,” Claudia murmured. “He’s 19.”

“And you are eighteen, right?” Ava asked.

“Right,” Claudia murmured. “I don’t know if he’s been around, but I figure I gave him enough trouble the last couple of days, so he might have sought out some refuge,” she would murmur as she took a picture of Archie out of her purse. “See him?”

Whoa Ava murmured but stayed silent. But Claudia was quick to see the reaction of the older lady. It was not the reaction she expected. “See him?”

“Nope,” Ava said as she made moves to walk away. “If I see him, I will tell him you are looking for him.”

“Why did you react that way?” Claudia asked. Because she knew that she had a six sense for people. She had always had it. Her mother had always warned about being cautious about it, and she definitely had not needed the warning because it was obvious to me, she sighed, so she tended to know when people knew things, and were trying to snow her. So, she knew that Ava knew something. “Have you seen Archie?”

“Nope, and I am being honest here” Ava murmured as she was having to find a way to explain something to Claudia, “Plus, the drinking age is still 21 in this state,” she murmured, no matter how much someone might want it to change.

“We both know that places like this look the other way,” Claudia asked.

“Not this one,” Ava loudly said. In case they were being watched.

Claudia chuckled. “Whatever,” said muttered. “Are you sure you have not seen my boyfriend, Archie?”

“I am sure,” Ava murmured.

“I guess I have to believe you,” Claudia sighed. “So, you know my parents?” she asked as she did not know what to make of having to use both when she had grown up with a single mother, and no father. New realities all over the place she muttered.

“Yes, I do” Ava sighed. “I like them, as I said” she sighed. “Unfortunately, I also look like their worst nightmare.”

“What do you mean?” Claudia asked. She did not remember a reference to Ava in her mother’s journal, but it had been a few days since she read it, so the interconnecting drama was being lost.

“It is a long story,” Ava murmured.

“One of those, huh?” Claudia asked.

“Very much so,” Ava sighed. “Got to get back to work,” she murmured. “If you need a job anytime, stop by here if you want.”

“I thought you said, I am underage?” Claudia asked.

“We can make something work,” Ava said, and Claudia nodded. As she led JJ out of the bar. And Ava could only exhibit a deep sigh, because of the existence of ghosts, Ghosts that are dead Thank God she muttered, but they certainly will leave a lot of baggage behind them…

It did not matter to her, except that she is my duplicate she thought.

*

Claudia knew meanwhile that Ava knew more than she was saying. But she also knew that she was unlikely going to get something out of someone who she did not know, and did not have a history with, but who has a history with both of my parents, she muttered. And therefore, she will be tightlipped And Claudia herself was beginning to wonder if she should read her mother’s journal again and pay attention this time she muttered. Before, I was taken by the shiny objects in the tale and did not really focus on the grittiness of the words except to know my mother could have been dead at fifteen and my father is the one who saved her. “I guess I better get you home.”

“Which home is that?” JJ asked.

“I know, I know” Claudia sighed at the feeling of unease for both of them. “Mom told us that life would be more settled when we came here to Roswell, did she not?”

“Yup,” JJ muttered. “But things seem even worse than they were in Boston.”

“I would not go that far,” Claudia muttered because they knew in Boston. Their mother’s life was too focused on work, because of the last year. Therefore, this was supposed to be about starting anew, and there was still something new, but Mom was preoccupied, but about her personal life and not her career Claudia observed. For a change she thought because she did not know a time when her mother was not looking for advancement because she had to reclimb the ladder in a different fashion than the one that she grew up. Yet, to know why her mother was preoccupied. She did not know what to think about the fact that her mother was preoccupied by her father.

It has never been something I have had experience with she knew.

Because her father had been someone who had never been in her life. Or he was, but not since she was a baby. But trying to find Archie was not working, and she needed to get her brother back home. She needed a break. So, going home was the answer, right?

Home, yeah, right? Claudia would also mutter. Because she still had not heard from their mother. So, as she got ready to call for a cab.

“Claudia,” was what she heard.

She turned. And was surprised to see Tripp Valenti. “What are you doing here?” she was quick to ask, because it was her opinion that Tripp was even younger than she was, so she was surprised to see that he would be at a bar.

Even if it was a country and western one.

“Picking up some papers with the owner,” Tripp murmured. “Dad forgot he needed to pick them up, and he’s busy right now.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Claudia murmured. “You do work with your father?”

“Yes, I do.” Tripp murmured. Because he knew he was lucky. It was a decent job. One that gave some money, and he did not have to hunt for a job in a town that was very closed up over the past year. Even then, he did not know what his life goals were. But he was planning on going as far as he could go and figure out along the way what he wanted to do. He did not want to follow in his grandfather’s step, but he was not sure the construction was all that good. But then, who knows where I will be in a years’ time, when it is time for graduation. “About before,” he murmured as he chastised himself for how he had acted before, when they had met up earlier. “I came on a little rough” he murmured.

“It is nothing,” Claudia murmured as she tried to wipe around the previous interaction, and how much she had been annoyed by Tripp’s accusations against her boyfriend. “I am not taking it personally.”

“I hope you don’t,” Tripp murmured. “I came across as if it mattered to me,” he sighed. “When I know it matters to you, and to Archie, and what is up with him does not concern me,” he sighed, and Claudia nodded. “So, I am sorry.”

“I know you are,” Claudia murmured, as she attempted to smile because it only made her think that she did not know where Archie was, and it was bugging her, I need to know what is going on she sighed, and she checked her watch. “I guess we better go,” Claudia said with a smile. It was nice to see someone who knew her, it must mean I am beginning to know this town, she thought, as she went for her phone. “I better call that cab.”

“Are you headed back to town? Tripp asked.

As if I could go anywhere else with my little brother by my side, Claudia murmured. And then she nodded. Because our mother is doing gods knows what she murmured as she did not want to think of what her mother could be doing.

“Then why don’t you wait, and I pick those papers up I need to get for my father. And then I could drive you and your brother back to town?” he asked. “Calling a cab will cause more time than if it was just a simple ride with me?”

“Don’t you have to get those papers to your father?” Claudia asked. “Whatever they are?”

“He’s busy,” Tripp murmured. “I just have to drop them off at home. He does not have to be there to receive them.”

“You have a car?” Claudia asked.

Tripp laughed. “Since my sixteenth birthday. A clear-cut benefit of coming from a broken home, with parents who split when I was a baby. They wanted to buy my love,” he said with a laugh. “So, they gave me a car. Of course, that was before, the economy went to hell” he said with a sigh.

“Impressive,” Claudia murmured as she admired the car. “I wish I had that…” she muttered, obviously ignoring the car she had driven to this town, that is my grandparents old one she thought. I was only borrowing it.

And eventually it will return to Arizona she thought. Whenever they come to visit.

“Maybe you will,” Tripp said with a smile.

“I think not,” Claudia sighed. “Mom does not have the money for that,” she murmured. While they had led a nice life in Boston. Still, her mother had quit her job and was taking up a risky proposition in this climate. Opening up a restaurant, yeah, sure that would work Claudia muttered. Maybe she was not thinking she thought. Although she knew she did not have to worry about her education, unlike some of her friends, or even Archie. Because, sure, I have a trust fund. But that was helped along by Grandpa she thought.

“Your father would do anything for you,” Tripp murmured. “If you stick around this town long enough.”

“Yeah, maybe” Claudia sighed. Still obviously not used to the idea that she had a father in the picture. Or a father at all, I know I came from somewhere, but there is a lot of contradictions in my life story she murmured. “I guess we will see.”

“Yes, I guess you will” Tripp said softly. “Why don’t I pick up the documents from Ava,” Tripp asked, knowing how unique the fact Ava had the same last name as Claudia’s father. He knew for a fact it had not gone over well with the elders in his family tree when she first came to town. So, they just referred her to Ava.

And told him and Kyla to do so also, if we saw her.

“If you want to,” Claudia murmured. Conceding that it would be quicker, since they were out of town limits, and any cab would take a little while to come. I should have kept the other one. But that would have cost a fortune.

One that I don’t have.

“I’ll go in,” Tripp murmured as he walked into the establishment, and came out ten minutes later. “That was easy.”

“So, what is the deal with Ava?” Claudia asked.

“What do you mean?” Tripp asked.

“She says she has history with my parents,” Claudia asked. “But I don’t recall anyone really talking about it. Of course, I am an outsider in many ways, and I don’t know my life story, so what is up with her.”

“Nothing much,” Tripp murmured. Knowing full well that there was more to meet the eye with Ava. And there was a crazy backstory because only in this clan, can there be tales of duplicates and other worldly beings.

“What do you mean?” Claudia asked.

“It does not matter,” Tripp muttered. Because he did not want to dissuade Claudia was trying to get to know her history, and her family. Scaring her off might be worse in the long run. “I better get you home. Do you know where you are headed?” he asked, because he did know that the apartment above the Crashdown Café was supposed to be home, and it was for Claudia. But JJ was out at the motel.

“I am going to try my mother again,” Claudia muttered as she reached for her phone once more. “She refuses to check my messages to her.”

Tripp smiled. “I know what it is like to have parents who have their own life.”

Claudia sighed, unfortunately Mom is preoccupied at the moment.

Of course, she would not know how preoccupied her mother and father were at this moment.

“Still nothing,” Claudia sighed. Because, just as she was forced to decide where to go next. A text came into Tripp’s phone, expecting to see that it was from his father. Checking upon his errand. Tripp knew his father was over at Isabel’s. And given how the situation was unique between Kyla’s mother and his father. He did not want it to rain on his father’s parade. But it was fine, and he had picked up the papers he had needed to because Ava was talking about doing some work at Cow Patties.

But it was only on the talking stage. Like so much else is.

Anyways, he expected the text to be from his father. But was surprised to find that it was from Lucy.

Whoa Tripp murmured as he read the text. This cannot be right. But Lucy was in the middle of it, so she has to know, right?

“What is it?” Claudia asked as he saw the concern on Tripp’s face. “Your parents?”

“No,” Tripp muttered. “It’s Lucy.”

“Why is Lucy reaching out to you?” Claudia asked. As she realized she had not checked her own messages except to scan for any sign that her mother was back to reality, and ready to take back JJ at the motel.

“It’s complicated,” was all Tripp could say as he read the text. “But you are not going to like it.”

“Try me?” Claudia asked as they walked to the car.

Tripp Valenti was forced to decide on what he was going to tell Claudia on the trip back into town. All that was known for sure was that they were not headed back to the Crashdown Café, or the apartment above.

Nope, they were headed to the motel.

Where mayhem was being unleashed.

*

As a result, the trip into town was quiet. Too quiet for JJ’s taste because he knew the situation was not a good one. Because back in town. It was like life was suspended. As if nothing had gone on, while others were simply talking, or doing more than talking but at the motel. It was as if Maria was in suspended motion. What in the hell had I walked into she muttered as she and her daughter could not even leave.

Lucy did not want to. Maria could not because she needed information. There is no way Archie is Tess’s son, she thought.

And Max’s son, at one time.

Maria knew there was DNA testing to verify that Max was not related to the boy that Tess had brought back to town. It was thought she had likely miscarried Max’s child. Although they did not know that for sure, because all of this went down after Tess was dust, she thought, in an explosion that nearly took down us at the same time.

Or Max, Isabel, Michael and Liz Maria sighed. Because she and Kyle were the fortunate ones. Although we did not feel very fortunate at the time. Because we got some of that splatter when everything went south, even though in the end, we would choose to go with Max, Liz, Michael and Isabel.

She could not be left behind.

Sure, my life was a little directionless with New York showing that I did not want to compromise that vision that I had for my career she muttered, thankfully Nashville would be more receptive, she would murmur, eventually.

Now she was two decades removed from those days. And what a ride it had been, but she did not anticipate how those days would come back to haunt now that she was back in town. Sure, Liz also came back to town and has to deal with her past with Max, but come on, do we have to deal with Tess, again?

Tess is dead, Maria murmured to herself.

Because she knew that she would never cry over that loss. Unlike the loss of Alex before her. To Maria, no one is missing Tess, she muttered.

Given the carnage the blonde committed before dying in a way that would only serve to bring us down with her.

I am not crying over her being gone, Maria muttered to herself, but she was starting to come back to reality and looking at Archie with eyes wide open. Now they were out of the pathway of the hallway of the motel. So, they did not draw any unwanted eyes, or most importantly, cameras.

And in Crystal Holmes room.

The room her brother had rented for her, for the night he was assuming. But then everything was off the table now in assumptions. Anything is possible Archie would think as she was looking at Lucy’s mother who was glancing at him like she was seeing a ghost.

Everything seemed so simple a few days before. I would come visit Claudia and spend a few days with my girlfriend, but I did not know when I entered the town limits that I would find a portal and fall into another world.

One that did not have any semblance of reality to him.

How could it?

And yet here he was…

With images playing in his mind. And none of them made any sense. And a woman he did not know was claiming he was someone’s son. Now I don’t know my story he would think. All I know is I was adopted by my parents. Parents who were not able to stay together.

He had seen his adoption records. And he knew his birth mother’s name was Tess Harding he would think. She’s dead.

That much is what I know he thought. My birth father is undefined, he would think. After all, he had never had any desire to know his birth origins. He might have seen his official papers, but he had been younger than he did not devour them with the need to know anything more than who his birth parents were.

Tess Harding and his father was unnamed. But he would find that was amended after the fact and told him that it was believed at the time of his birth that someone was his father. Of course, someone is my father he would mutter.

I could not have gotten here if not for some guy who went all the way with my birth mother. He knew she was seventeen when he was born. But she died a year later. And he was at that point, put up for adoption when he was only months old. She died in some accident; the circumstances of her death were just as undefined as my biological father’s name he would mutter.

Although after some initial inquiries, he would learn the man’s name was Max Evans, but he was not his father after testing after his adoption showed that they were not related. So, his birth records were amended. With his father’s name left blank.

His mother would say that there was no reason to go looking for his father’s identity. You survived and we did not have to deal with it she would tell him. Yes, I survived, he knew. Because of a childhood illness that almost killed him. Some mysterious illness that had no known cause, but was solved just as mysteriously as it started, he knew.

And his parents were unable to make it through without splitting up.

And they would seesaw until after Crystal was conceived, and then it was splitsville even though they got that miracle child he would mutter. A child I was not. Although he did not blame them per se, because he knew how much those things can cause pain for a couple. And not everyone is strong enough to make it through he knew. But he blamed his father for how he treated things, not that dad wants to be forgiven he thought, or me at least he thought. Crystal is another story.

And now here in a town that was supposed to be a carefree trip to see his girlfriend. He had never anticipated any of this. Or that he could get drawn into the drama.

“I don’t know what you are talking about?” Archie murmured as his silence was broken, and he could not help but look at Maria, with Crystal looking concerned at her brother.

“You said, your name was, or is Zan?” Maria asked, in almost a whisper.

“Was?” Archie muttered. “My parents when they adopted me, named me Alexander Archibald Holmes,” he would mutter. “Because they did not like the name Zan, that was apparently on my birth papers,” he murmured. “But I never took to the name Alex and wanted to be called by Archie. And so, it has stuck.”

Oh god Maria whispered once more.

“You look like you are seeing a ghost?” Archie murmured.

“Maybe, but not the one I want to be seeing” Maria murmured quietly. And Lucy sighed, as she stood silently. Because she knew enough of the stories of the clan, but she did not know everything, but she knew once upon a time, there was an Alex in Mom and Claudia’s mother’s life she thought. I have never met the guy, since he is dead.

But she knew enough to know Alex was a name that was on the list that had a lot of pain and angst too, and why Mom and Dad did not call me Alexandra, which is a name they were considering, but realized it was too painful she thought. So, Lucy comes from Deluca. Mom and Grandma’s original name.

And I wear it with pride, Lucy thought. But she knew not everyone did the same with whatever her name shall be she thought. So, it’s plausible that Archie would not want to associate with the name.

Even though he does not know the story about what came with the name.

Archie did know some stuff and the stuff I know; I don’t like he thought as he looked at the bewildered look on Lucy’s mother’s face. Archie did not exactly know what to think of what he did know.

I rather just lead my life. Archie sighed. I never wanted to be defined by my birth story, he sighed. And that went double as he saw how his girlfriend was defined by her birth story. And the angsty gore of it.

He did not care to know the truth about it. Because he that he did know, he did not like. I don’t need to know Tess Harding he muttered because even though he would find out that officially. Her death went down as an unexplored mystery.

Dying in some explosion. The government was never too expansive about it from the media reports I read back in 2002.

So, he knew a little about ghosts. But he did not care to know. He never wanted to get into the mud and look into the why. “Who would that be?” Archie asked.

Maria shook her head. “It does not matter,” she sighed as it was sending her reeling at the idea that she could be looking at Tess’s child. A child that brought pain to her best friend. A child that was unique in his own right, even though he is human, she thought. Testing would declare he had no genetic differences because Max and Michael would do their own testing in the model of Liz once upon a time Maria murmured. He’s human. With human blood cells, she would think. Even with Tess at his biological mother. “You cannot be Zan?”

“Well, I am,” Archie muttered. “But I am not Tess Harding’s son even if my birth certificate indicates that I am,” he sighed “It does not matter to me who my birth parents are, even though I would think you would not know who my birth father is?” he asked. “Because my birth papers were amended after the fact, I am told…”

Max Maria cried. Shit, no.

You know how insane this isMaria would ask. Are we being pranked by an old version of Maury Povich episode she wondered. Because this is tailor made for such a show, okay, maybe more Jerry Springer she muttered to herself.

Uh oh Lucy muttered as she too was clued into the incredible mess that Archie was Tess Harding’s son. Oh, shit, she muttered. Claudia, she sighed out loud.

“Claudia, what do you mean?” Crystal asked.

Maria wanted to ignore the icky implications, Sure Max is not his father, but this is unseemly, right? she wondered. The tabloids would have a field deal.

“Yes,” Maria whispered. “The person who we believed to be your father was found not to be your father.”

“Yeah, Max Evans” Archie muttered without true meaning of the name, even though it was starting to come to him, and his mind was rebelling against it. Because of what it meant, and even though it should not, still, it was mucky, and unbelievable and like Maria was seeing ghosts when she was looking at Archie. Well, Archie was seeing them when earlier it had come to him when he put two and two together and got oh my god.

“Max Evans is Claudia’s biological father?” Archie muttered.

“Yes, he is” Maria confirmed. The one thing we are sure about, she would think. There is no denying that Max and Liz created Claudia because there would be no one else for my friend, she thought. No matter how complicated it would become, and how confusing it would also become, she muttered. Even if we don’t understand all her decisions. But the one thing we know is Claudia is Max’s daughter.

Thankfully Maria sighed but then she was looking at the boy that was thought to be Max’s son and even though he was no longer linked to Max, still, she knew the incredible consequences of being raised apart from each other, and neither knowing how their connection might come to be defined. Shit she would think personally. Lucy was getting the same feeling as her mother.

As she was putting two and two together, and her eyes brows raised. Oh god she muttered. I sent that text to Tripp she thought.

And she wished she had chosen to wait, because almost on cue, they would hear a “Hell No”.

And they all looked, and they saw Claudia and Tripp looking at the scene in horror. Or there was horror in Claudia’s eyes.

She promptly fainted.

[Parker1947]

Horror indeed. Because Claudia Diane Evans did not know what she had gotten into as her eyes opened mere moments after being placed on the bed. Because Archie had run to his girlfriend’s side almost immediately and lifted her and placed her on the second bed in the room. Because there had been two doubles in the room.

Silence was now embracing the room. No one was talking. Not even JJ who was in the room and confused as ever. Even Tripp Valenti who had stood beside Claudia while this all went down, and he saw the eyes twitched, and he grabbed Lucy and pulled her out of the room so they could talk. And give Claudia some privacy “What is going on in there?” Tripp asked as he glanced at his cousin, Lucy.

Not through blood. But marriage. We are an odd family he knew. And he loved every part of it.

“You could hear it yourself,” Lucy muttered as she looked through the window and saw the dazed eyes of her friend. I don’t blame her, she knew. I would not like to be in her shoes.

Just a few days ago I was hoping I had an Archie she muttered as Lucy could only shake her head as she could see the also dazed eyes of her own mother, who as the resident adult. Well, she decided to stay in the room. Probably wise and Lucy herself wanted to be in there but knew that she needed to brief her cousin where their voices would not carry. She nodded and closed the door behind her.

“You want to explain what was going on in there?” Tripp further asked.

“Is it any of your business?” Lucy asked. “It probably is not mine either, but I was there, so I have the unfortunate privilege of having to overhear it,” she would mutter as she could see the concerned look on Tripp’s face. “If this is about you know…”

“Lucy,” Tripp muttered. “I care about Claudia as a friend. Because that is all she sees me as, and I can see that there is too much in the air for her, to even think of anything different” he would sigh. What kind of guy would I be to move in he sighed. “But still, I care.”

And it has been only a few days.

But a few days can be many lifetimes.

“I care too,” Lucy muttered. She’s my best friend, she thought. Why is he looking at me like I don’t care, when I do. “But it does seem as if Archie is not who we thought him to be,” was all she could say. As if I knew him at all she would mutter to herself. “Therefore, Claudia is getting an eye opening…”

“What does that mean?” Tripp asked.

“Seems that Archie might be the mystery kid that they said used to be Claudia’s father” Lucy sighed because she and second generation, whether alien hybrid or human had heard about some of the nasty business from their parent’s day. And certainly, that Claudia’s father had another kid, that would not turn out to be his she and Tripp would recount. “You know the one he believed he had, until he found out he was lied too?”

Certainly, it had been told to them, so that they would be beware. Especially Tripp as he was getting older. And was the only growing boy within the group. A be careful with the other sex, you know because there are hoaxes of all kinds he would think. There was really a kid, because he would show up during his father’s senior year, but once the truth was revealed. The paternity was an open question, but it was not Claudia’s father.

Lucy remembered the rants from her parents as she grew up, when that came out. Even though it would be years before she truly understood what they meant, and it was not pretty she thought, given Dad is very much Claudia’s father’s protector.

Even if the royal decree of their heritage was disowned a long time before I was born, she thought. That was loopy she thought as she remembered hearing about Kings, and princesses, and soldiers, which my father was.

Which means he engrained to protect his friend. Even to this day she thought. And Michael Guerin hated it when his best friend was played for a fool. Of course, all of them got played Lucy would hear as she got older. And she was able to comprehend the full weight of the story.

So, she knew to be wary. Even though she was not necessarily as paranoid as her father was. She was way more open.

Even if she had been wary of Crystal. Still, she had not believed any of this could be under the surface. And knowing there was so much she could not possibly know…

Tripp could not help but take a double take. “Say that again?” he asked his cousin.

“You heard me the first time,” Lucy muttered. Because she really did not want to have to say it again. “I am not here spinning some story.”

“If you are not, then that is insane” Tripp murmured as his eyes went to the glass that led to the motel room. And he could not help but wonder what was going on in the room. Damn he would think. “How could that be true?”

“Well, they have said the kid was out there…” Lucy sighed as she was trying to get her brain to tell her more of the situation, I simply don’t remember if could be true “Adopted.”

Tripp nodded.

Lucy herself looked through the glass. “He certainly looks like he could be Tess Harding’s child.”

Tripp nodded, because he had seen the pictures of the woman who had betrayed their clan and messed things up for his grandfather, and father. “Although his hair is not as blonde as his mother was…”

“Maybe that is the contribution of that mystery father?” Lucy asked. “Whom we don’t know who it is,” she murmured. “All we know is, that is not Claudia’s father.”

Tripp nodded. Shit, Claudia he muttered, and it was as if Lucy could read his mind, maybe she can he thought because he knew Lucy and Kyla were known to have some abilities, which was mystifying to him, as the lone human teenager in their bunch he thought.

Lucy could not read minds as much as she would enjoy having the ability she knew, and she currently hated this situation. Because only the other day, I was enjoying the soap opera nature of all this she thought. But it sucks now, even though I am not a part of it she thought. It is getting a bit too Jerry Springer she thought.

Improbable, and a little insane.

“What is going to happen now?” Tripp asked.

“I have no idea.” Lucy murmured.

And that was the truth.

*

Meanwhile,

Because no one knew what was going on. How can we? As inside the motel room that Lucy and Tripp were the outside of, Claudia’s eyes were fully open, and she was silent. She did not like what her mind was thinking or saying. On the other hand, Archie was not about to push his girlfriend. All the while, JJ could only look at the whole unreal situation, as he was totally confused. Thankfully he was only 10 Maria would think as she looked at the little boy. Someone who had come into an already unique situation years before when her best friend adopted him, and added him to a single mother family, with a sister who was eight years older. But they adapted quite well. And thankfully around that time, Maria was able to get her best friend back after years of distance.

Now she knew what was behind the distance. Even if Maria still did not fully understand all of it. Still, she trusted her friend to make the right decision. And thankfully, she was now back in town, but unfortunately unforeseen events were unleashing mayhem that were now escalating with every moment spent in town. And it was getting them to this point? Where this curveball could come out of literally nowhere, yeah, really, she was thinking as if she could not help but feel for Claudia.

Because at eighteen, Claudia should be getting ready to take on the world. And even after the year that they all had just experienced, Claudia should be setting herself free, but nope, she was coming to a new town, a town she would not have known, and she was finding much more than she ever thought she wanted to know, yeah, it is a lot, Maria thought.

As she could see that her goddaughter wanted to throw up. I know the feeling.

As if on cue. Claudia sprung up from the bed and ran to the bathroom and promptly threw up into the toilet. Any other time, Maria would have unseemly thoughts in her mind, of a situation her friend’s daughter would not be ready for that she and Liz had once felt for themselves.

Except when we were committed to her significant others, Maria thought. As Claudia would come back a little green. “Queasy?” she asked in support of her god child.

A god child she had not had a lot of experience with because they all lived in different parts of the country but was now back in the same town.

“A little,” Claudia muttered. “I feel sick,” she admitted. “Like I have been run over by a truck or stabbed in the back. “Not you know that other option?”

“I figured,” Maria muttered as she looked over at Archie who looked a little queasy himself, yeah, we are very lucky. Because the last thing they needed to add that to the equation. But she also knew until this weekend, Archie lived elsewhere, and we had not seen each other in months.

Claudia did not know what to think or say as she could not even look at Archie with a straight face, or at all she would think and Archie could not look at Claudia, and Maria felt for them, talk about confusing. “I am sorry.”

“Are you telling me I am sleeping with my brother?” Claudia blurted out, and Tripp nearly spilled the drink he had taken from the bar for Claudia to get some refreshments in her, and some substance into her as he and Lucy came back into the room. As they could see, she looked like she could collapse at any time.

Jesus Maria wanted to say. And curse Max. And wish that he was here to deal with it, because it was really a matter for the girl’s father. Given he is the one who got into the mess, not any of us, she muttered to herself. We would have told him that something was not right with Tess from day one. But then Liz had to go and listen to that futuristic version of Max she mused. Pushing Max at her nemesis.

No wonder he would eventually go there, she would think. Especially when we were all going through a hard time she would think as if her heart still ached over the loss of Alex. I miss you, Alex, she moaned to herself. But Max was not there, and it was only me, she thought.

I am the only adult in the room she murmured. Even though she did not want to have to answer it, she had too. “Of course not,” she sighed. “Whomever are Archie’s birth parents,” she sighed because she did not want to believe it was Tess, even though it was plausible because she viewed that time period as being over. Yes, the kid was out there, but why would he come back into our lives. “It is not your father.”

Tess said he was normal. And test results hinted at no anomalies she said, except for that unique illness that brought the truth out she sighed as she looked at the confusion on Claudia’s face, and little on Archie’s as well.

“You are not related,” Maria muttered as she continued.

“Are you sure?” Claudia asked. “Because I remember something in Mom’s journal that indicated my father had another kid. A brother?” she would ask, even though there were passages that indicated that the baby went away.

“You two are not related,” Maria sighed. “I can promise you that. And your father would also assure you of that, if he were here, but he is not, and I have to deal with it” she sighed. Thank you, Max… “There is a story to all this, and it is confusing, and a little farfetched,” she was thinking to herself. “But what matters to you now is that if Archie is Tess Harding child. Your father is not his father,” she muttered. Even if for a time we believed he was she mused. “We know that for sure…”

“Would my mother know?” Claudia asked as she could not believe she had fallen into this rabbit hole, or that she even had to worry about any of this.

No Maria thought. Because she walked away too soon, she sighed. “She only found out the other night,” Maria sighed. “She did not know. Because truthfully, we did not know until after your parents split, and your father decided to come back to Roswell…”

Claudia could not say anything. Because she did not know if she could believe it.

Archie did not know what to think, but it dovetailed with what he knew of his first months with his parents. “And I got sick, right?” Archie asked. Because he could read the tea leaves of the history that he knew. “I got sick when I was a baby, and my parents sought out the man they believed to be my father, for help, only for it turn out that he was not?”

“Right,” Maria sighed as she was quick to say one more time. “Max Evans is not your father,” she sighed. “Assuming you are that baby?”

“But he thought he was?” Claudia asked as she was still sticking on that her parents had believed it to be the case. “And my birth mother thought he was?”

“Yes,” Maria sighed. “And that was why there was so much trouble between your parents Claudia back in high school. Eventually, they would get through it, or try to,” she would murmur.

Claudia nodded, because she knew as well as anyone that her parents in the end, did not get through it.

Because eventually they would part.

Even though they would part because of unrelated events, not dealing with Tess. Although she started it by forcing us out of town, and onto the road Maria would muse to herself. Too much was going on back then she muttered to herself, as she saw the confusion in the room. “Max is not your father.”

“I know,” Archie said.

But it was worthwhile saying again, until it made sense or was believed.

Because Claudia still could not believe it. “How could they get it so wrong?” she asked. “Because my father believed he had a kid, right?”

“Right,” Maria sighed. All the evidence we knew at the time said Max was the father she knew. How could he not be? she sighed. I don’t know, she mused. But someone is, and it is not Max. “It is a very long and complicated story and something we probably should not get into right now,” she sighed as she knew this was not the subject or the conversation she wanted to be having. “All that matters to today, is that you two are not related to each other.”

“I guess, that is something” Claudia muttered even though she did not know if she truly believed it. But she knew very well that it was everything if Archie and I were meant to be together.

And now I am having my doubts she thought.

Archie might also be having some doubts. Because he did not know how to handle it. This is a truly insane situation. “You knew this, Tess Harding?” he asked. “The woman on my birth certificate?” he asked because sure, he was not defined by his story, and did not wish to be, but it did not mean that he could not ask some questions of someone who knew his birth mother. And he saw Lucy’s mother flinched as if the memory was not good.

Something I already know he thought in the little he knew of the woman who birthed him. Of course, knowing what he did know did not make him anxious about finding out much more. But it did make him curious, just a tad he thought.

“You don’t want to know what I think of that woman” Maria murmured and could see that her words did make an impact on the boy. And after all Archie, despite his age, is still a boy in this scenario. “Look Archie. I am sorry. But there is a lot you don’t know about that time, and if you are Tess’s child. You deserve answers, but they should not come from me because anything out of my mouth will make things worse, because I have a history with the girl, and that history is not kind. And you don’t deserve that venom that I would be spewing, if you do want to know…”

“I can understand that” Archie murmured. But do I?

Maria nodded, as she checked her watch and winced at the awareness that she had been gone far longer than she should have been. Michael is probably wondering where I am, she was thinking. He is leaving tomorrow. “It should not be me who tells you any of it,” she sighed as she looked at her daughter. “Lucy, we need to go.”

Lucy sighed, because she wanted to be support for her friend. “Claudia?”

“Go,” the still queasy teenager would say. When she knew she did not want to be here, and dealing with this she sighed, not this but then she saw her baby brother looking at her with concern, and she knew she needed to go out of this room. “Go,” she said again. “I need to go myself. I have to deal with this myself. You cannot help me with this…”

Lucy sighed, because she knew it was the truth. “But if you need me, call me.”

“I will,” Claudia sighed.

“Come on honey,” Maria murmured as she led her daughter out of the motel room and wondered what was going to happen next.

Those who remained could only imagine that too, and Claudia had enough of it. And yet she could not quite leave yet. She looked horrified and fully disgusted at the whole situation, and Archie felt for her. Because he had not anticipated this when he came to town. And I wonder what she thinks of me know he thought.

Do I even want to know?

He did not know.

“I am going,” Claudia said. It was all she could think of saying right at that moment. When everything was topsy turvy.

Archie nodded, although he wanted to say something. “Claudia, I am sorry.”

“About what?” Claudia asked.

“All this,” Archie sighed. And his sister was concerned for her brother. When she had gotten on that bus after the fight with their father, she had not anticipated that her visit would unearth any of this, and she knew her brother had a lot of issues with his adoption. Even if he was being honest with his desire not to kick up the dirt of that time. He is very adaptable, she knew.

I wished I was that adaptable she sighed.

Tripp watched it all. And knew he should be going. But the last thing he needed was to leave Claudia alone. Even though Claudia was not that alone, still her brother is not the answer he muttered. He is ten years old.

Claudia nodded as her attention was on Archie, as she tried to make this make sense. Good luck, she was telling herself.

“Claudia” JJ asked. “Can we go?” the ten-year-old asked because he knew this was not the situation his big sister should be in. Being ten, he did not comprehend any of what he was hearing, which is good Claudia would think as she was reminded, she had her brother in this room, and I have to care for him because Mom is MIA.

“We are going” Claudia said softly to her brother, to reassure him that she was okay. “But I take JJ and leave, I have to ask you…”

“What do you have to ask me?” Archie asked.

“Was it all a lie?” Claudia asked.

Lies Archie asked almost dumbly. “What are you talking about?” he asked. “I did not lie to you.”

“I have to know, was any of this real” Claudia asked. “Or was it lies to get me in this position?” she asked even though she did not know what position she was in, and she could not take it on face value.

Because given her life. She was finding so much was a façade. And now Archie was different than who she thought he was, because I knew he was adopted, but not any of this she thought. And how it related to me.

“Was it real?” Claudia asked. “Or was it all a lie?”

*

Lies. That was a good question. And Archie knew the answer, but he was not sure that Claudia wanted to know the answer or whether she could understand it. Hell, I can barely understand it myself he told himself. But for Claudia. She did not understand how any of this could be happening. But here they were in some motel room, and in a showdown of sorts. “Are you serious?” Archie was asking.

JJ just wanted to get out of the room. Tripp felt for the boy. He did not leave either because he was staying in case Claudia needed help, although it was clear that at least for this minute, she could control this escalating situation herself, now that she is conscious of it. But it did not mean Tripp could not try to be the support valve she would need. “Maybe you should leave this to another time?” he asked out of support. Everything is too live wire he thought. “It does nothing to deal with this, when everything you are feeling is running hot, and you are so emotional” he asked because he had certainly learned enough about relationships, and when to cut and walk away when seeing how his father had dealt with his prior marriages. Sometimes it’s better to let things calm down and not get into a drag-out fight he thought because he had seen enough of them with his former stepmothers.

“I want to deal with this now,” Claudia muttered. I have to deal with this now.

“You cannot possibly think that I would be lying to you?” Archie asked as he looked at Claudia as he was trying to wrestle with this situation himself. Because it’s not one I wanted or was seeking he sighed. I came to this town to visit Claudia, he thought, that was all there was too it he thought. I was never looking to open up this hornet’s nest, he mumbled to himself as saw the emotion on her face. And knew he felt just emotional himself. “Nothing I have said to you were lies.”

“You just did not tell me everything?” Claudia asked as she was obviously questioning all she had not been told.

“Like you have told me everything about you?” Archie batted back. “There is still a lot more that I don’t know about you,” he sighed. So, what if there is a little you don’t know about me, he sighed, hell I don’t know about more than I do know. “You knew I was adopted. That my legal name is not even Archie, and that my parents took me in when I was a few months old,” he allowed. It was not even a few days. It was months into my first year, he thought. Although my birth papers had a date for his birth, but time would tell me that was more of an assumption because my birth mother had died and did not give up that kind of information to the man who believed he was my father.

Max Evans he now knew. The man who had put me up for adoption and signed the papers.

Claudia’s birth father This is totally fucked up.

Claudia would agree with that assessment. It is clearly very fucked up. “Yes, I did” Claudia conceded. While she was fully immersed in the fact her own life story was full of drama, and so much was under the surface, it definitely was there, she thought. Archie was always up front that he had a horrible relationship with his adoptive father, but he was not exactly hurt because of it. She knew that he was adopted, or that he did not know where he came from. He knew some of the details, but he did not have an overwhelming desire to know more.

“So, I was not lying to you,” Archie muttered. “You knew as much as I did, at the time” he sighed. “How would I know anything else until I came to this town?”

Claudia could only sigh, because the rational side of her knew this. But she could not help herself. She was to upset. “You did not tell me you come back out here,” Claudia muttered. Even though she knew that she should probably not be blaming Archie because she definitely knew what it meant not to know everything about your origin story, but she felt hurt, and she hated that feeling, and needed something to make sense. Because for so long she believed she had something solid in her relationship with Archie.

It made sense, she thought. Yes, we made sense, and I had something that actually did make a little sense and now it was all in a puff of smoke, and she did not know what was real anymore. So, she was using the anger of her whole life to get on Archie, even if he did not deserve it.

“I didn’t know,” Archie muttered. How could I? he asked himself. I was not invested in my story, he thought. I thought I was part of someone else’s story.

Claudia’s.

He did not know how interconnected they were, even when they were not.

“How could you not know?” Claudia asked.

“All I know is the names on my birth certificate,” Archie sighed, “I did not care to know anything more. I knew the preliminaries. Nothing more. So, how would I know it meant something to us. I mean, you never mentioned having a father. So, how was I supposed to connect any of the information that you did give me to the man who was originally on my birth certificate,” he asked. “There are many Evans in this world,” he would mutter he wanted to curse, this is too bizarre he would think. “Claudia, seriously, I did not know,” he sighed. “Sure, I knew the name. But that is all I knew. A name. When I saw him the other night, I did not connect it because how else would I know because I was a supposedly a baby the last time I saw the man, and then everything happened, and any connection we did have was undone by some kind of test or something. Which was done according to my parents when I became sick.”

Claudia could only sigh. Because she knew she had not given him much information, because I did not know she sighed. I was very much in the dark, she knew. “Whatever,” Claudia sighed.

“It does not have to change things,” Archie muttered. As he hated how this was causing distance between them. Because he did believe they were strong, I guess I was wrong. “Your father is not my father,” he sighed, I know how crazy it is, to even have to say something like that.

“It changes so much,” Claudia muttered. “Even when it does not…”

“So, what, now?” Archie sighed.

“I need some space,” Claudia sighed. I need a lot of space. Even though she knew that I have too much space she thought. But sometimes I need it.

And I need more. She was feeling very crowded. Everything is closing in…

Archie could see that his girlfriend was a little overwhelmed, maybe more than a little he would think. And he knew her well enough to know she was not going to be receptive to having him around. “So, you think I should stay here with my sister?” Archie asked.

“You said it, not me” Claudia sighed. Because she did not know what the right answer was, and it was Archie who asked the question she muttered. Not me.

Archie could not help but look at the girl he loved. And he knew when she made up her mind, and given that she did not exactly say no, that gives me an answer I guess “I guess then that would be the best,” Archie sighed.

There was silence in the room for a moment, as all the parties did not know what to say, and then a small “Thank you” came out into the room. Because it was clear that it was the right thing for now. As Claudia tried to turn her focus away from the melodrama, I need out of here. “Come on JJ, let’s go” she sighed as she moved towards her little brother.

“Where are we going?” JJ asked.

“The only place we can go,” Claudia muttered as she thought as she turned and focused on the door, not wanting to say anything to Archie. Everything was too overwhelming, and that is the last thing I needed, she thought. She knew she needed time, and for life to make sense. “I will call tomorrow.”

Archie nodded. “I am sorry.”

“It’s not your fault.” Claudia sighed. And knew she meant it. She just did not know how to control any of this, I hate feeling out of control she muttered to herself as she took her little brother’s hand, and they walked out of the room. Archie could only sigh and look at Tripp.

“Make sure she is alright?” Archie asked.

“I will,” Tripp nodded. “Let me know when you are headed home,” was all he said to Crystal who smiled.

And he left the brother and sister in the room alone.

“Are you okay?” Crystal asked of her brother.

Hell, if I know, Archie muttered to himself as he felt his life shift in a totally different direction.

And it was a direction he did not know where it would end.

*

Outside,

Tripp walked out of the motel room and saw Claudia still there but staring into space. And JJ was looking at his sister with concern as he turned and focused on Tripp when he approached. “She’s never been this bad?” the child muttered to the older teenager. Even though to him, Tripp was a stranger. And someone he did not really know, but JJ knew enough to know that the teenager cared for his sister. And obviously, someone needs to care for her he sighed.

“Claudia?” Tripp asked.

“I am fine,” Claudia muttered as she was staring into space. She knew the perception of her, but she knew she was not that out of it. She was here, in reality. I just don’t know what to do now. Conscious that he was the one who drove her to the motel. “Do you need a drive?”

“No,” Claudia sighed.

“Then what are you going to do?” Tripp asked. “It quite a walk to the Crashdown?”

“I am not going to the Crashdown,” Claudia murmured of her family restaurant, that was still pretty defunct. She did not know what she would be finding there, and she needed time before she went back to that apartment and was alone with Archie. She had gotten used to his presence the last few days, since her mother and moved over here to the motel.

And yet, she could not stay here, could she?

Can I? Claudia asked.

“Claudia?” Tripp asked. “Are you okay?”

“Of course not,” Claudia smiled. “But I cannot be much worse, can I?” she asked because she could not believe this was her life. Come on. This is a small town, right? she asked herself. How could I walk into a Jerry Springer show, with aliens and almost brothers who I slept with she muttered to herself. “I did it this time?” he asked without even expecting an answer.

“You could not have known?” Tripp muttered.

“No, I could not” Claudia sighed with agreement. This is all so fucked up. “This is some town,” she muttered as she looked down at her little brother. “Hey, squirt, I am fine,” she sighed. “You don’t have to worry about me,” she muttered. “I have experienced worse,” she murmured even though she knew that was not true, because this was the lowest that she had been. Nothing else has rocked me to the core.

Not even finding my birth father and figuring out the messed-up connections between my parents.

“Are you sure?” JJ asked. Because he was not sure that his sister was okay. “You don’t look okay.”

“I only feel a little kicked in the stomach,” Claudia muttered, “It is a feeling I have been known to feel before,” she sighed, even if she still would have to concede that she had never experienced anything like this. Not even close.

Was not dealing with a long-lost father not enough, or a mother who is behaving like a teenager? She asked herself.

You had to one up that, didn’t you not? Claudia wondered as she knew she was talking to herself. It seems so ordinary in the face of things she muttered to herself, maybe I should seek out that shrink.

She had to really wonder where this was going. She really did, because she had no idea where it was going.

“Claudia?” JJ asked.

“I am fine, kid” Claudia smiled. “But there is only one place we can go,” she sighed. “Let’s go” she sighed as she looked at her friend in Tripp. “Thank you, really, but I will be fine. JJ and I are going to be alright” she sighed. “We are headed to the perfect place.”

Tripp nodded, as he watched as sister and brother walked downstairs, and he knew where they were headed. And he knew therefore, they would be safe.

But how she would be, he had no idea as he walked to his car and drove home.

Happy that his parents, despite being no longer together, could be civilized and normal. How refreshing he thought

[Parker1947]

Refreshing sure, because not everyone could be like that. Because you also had people like Max and Liz who simply could not stay apart from each other. Despite the fact that they had spent eighteen years apart, and after yet another unwise encounter. And we both know it’s unwise Max was telling himself as he woke up in Liz’s bed and instantly knew this was not the answer. Yet, for some reason we cannot stop ourselves he thought, because for him he knew, it will always be Liz he thought as he wanted to turn and to touch Liz, but he knew that he could not do it. So, instead of going with his desire to barricade himself in his bed until Liz came to her senses, he got up, and slipped out of bed.

And once more thought about walking away. Going back home. And dealing with the mess at home, which is hibernating he knew.

I have other things to do Max knew. Why do I do this to myself?

Because yes, it was Liz.

But then there were lies. And knowing what those lies had cost him. While his daughter may have, without him being aware, accused Archie unwarrantedly of keeping secrets, and yes, lies. Max knew his former wife really had lied to him, so why do I put up with it he thought.

So, he slipped out of his former wife’s bed, and walked to the window, and saw the old balcony, and place he knew well. Slipping on his clothes, he slipped out of the window.

Eyes popped open, and Liz could hear the silence in the room. A room that was a mystery to her, just as much as the knowledge that she kept getting herself in this situation.

Then she saw that Max was gone.

Sighing, she herself slipped out of the bed. Because likewise she did not know why she did this to herself or to Max. I lied to him, she thought, and she went to the window and saw that Max was collecting himself on our balcony.

But it’s not our balcony.

Not anymore.

It’s mine. But the memories were of them, when things were so simple. Because it was the beginning she sighed. We did not know what was going to come at us, she sighed. We were so young, she thought.

Now, several decades later, and the mother of a daughter who was precocious, and even older than when they had met and fell in love. She should be stronger than this, and be an adult, but it’s Max.

But she did not go to him.

Because she knew where they would end up, and that helped neither of us, she thought as she continued to watch as Max stand and stare out onto the main street of the town that had defined them.

She did not go to him.

She saw eyes turning and spotting her, but he did not come to her. Nor did she. He only continued to watch her, with both of us not doing anything and he took a step, but further away from her, as he went to the edge, and climbed down, and out of her eyesight.

She did not know what that meant.

“Oh Max,” Liz said softly, as she looked around her bedroom. A room that now had memories of the current day, but she knew this was not the answer. She checked the clock and winced and thought that it was remarkable that Claudia and JJ had not shown up, yet she thought. She knew what it presented as, whether it was really true or not, that is debatable. Then she went for her phone and winced once more because she saw he many messages.

And then the emotional tone on the last message, that was just left within moments before she reached for it. “Shit” she sighed. As she knew had to be a grown-up. And deal with my life as it is now. So, she sighed, and got dressed, and walked out of the Crashdown, and locked it behind her, and went back to her life.

The one that did not have memories of eighteen years ago in them.

*

While Max was taking the long route home. Because he got into his car, and just drove. Not wanting to deal with his present life. So, with the mission of just driving, he turned on the radio, and listened to some music, and the songs started out fast, and he was not even thinking of his problems, until he turned on an old classic country and western station which was fine, until it was not, because when a song started…

Reba MacEntire’s “You Lie”

We lie in the dark, I know you're awake
The only sounds are the sounds this old house makes
Oh, how I long, I long to hear your voice

Desperate to talk, yearning to touch
Burning inside 'cause I want you so much
So I say I need you and leave you no choice
You lie you don't want to hurt me
So you lie, buy a little time, and I go along
What else can I do? Maybe it's wrong
But you know how much I love you
So you lie until you can find a way to say goodbye

You lie
How long until you just can't go on?
And the urge to break loose is just too strong
You should let go, that's what you want to do
Oh, but you don't know, you don't know
If it's the right thing to do

So you lie you don't want to hurt me
So you lie, buy a little time, and I go along
What else can I do? Maybe it's wrong
But you know how much I love you
So you lie until you can find a way to say goodbye
Oh, you lie

You lie
Oh, you lie
Oh, you lie


Shit Max would think as he wanted to turn out and off the music and he finally did as he turned it to a pop station, music I hate, but it does not make me hate myself as he stared into space as he drove, and he did not know what to do. He craved his ex-wife. The woman has my heart, but she lied to me, so, how do I move on?

And move past her because he knew the last thing, he should be wanting is more of the same thing that ultimately led to his heartbreak.

I cannot deal with anymore lies. Because he was not sure she would stick. And then there was the matter of the fact in his head, he could not hear the screams from her visions. Parts of his former wife that she wanted to keep hidden from him, and not talk about.

Which is fine with me Max thought because he knew he rather hit someone or even worse he muttered to himself, if his former wife confirmed what those images really meant.

But at the real heart of it, I have to stay out of bed with her he thought. He almost wanted to drive over to Michael’s and say that he would go with Isabel across the country. Maybe I should leave he thought.

It got him thinking.

Stay and deal with both Liz and my father who both lied to me, or do I get out of dodge?

He did not know what he wanted.

Or how to get himself to a place where he would know what to do. Which of course was the prevailing sentiment all around the family.

*

Meanwhile,

Michael did not know this as he was packing his bag. And looking at the clock once more and wondering why his wife and daughter were not back home. He knew Maria had gone into Las Cruces that morning to do some business, business that I did not want to deal with he knew. So, Maria had taken Lucy as a eyes and ears to make sure Brandon and his goons are not doing anything shady.

He knew he trusted his wife’s representatives because it had come after many years, but still, it did not mean he wanted to be at every meeting and he knew his daughter was good at this type of thing, and it means that I don’t have to do it when I don’t want to do it, he thought, and I do have a trip to deal with.

Not that he was excited to go on it, but then it does get me out of having to deal with what Jim wants me to do he knew. Certainly, what he had learned already, was too little, and he had yet had a breakthrough. Still, what he had learned, did give him some heartburn and he could almost see Liz’s conduct in a different light.

But he had not turned over enough to see everything in a different light. And he knew how to hold a grudge with the best of them, and therefore he still wanted to be angry.

For his friend.

Even if for the sake of his marriage, he probably needed to give it a rest. So, the trip might be coming at the right time.

He was just about to call Isabel and confirm the time of departure for the morning, when the door came in with a shock, and a slam. “What?” Michael murmured because he knew the sounds, and it was an angry, and frustrated sound I know what that means he muttered.

But he did not think the sound was going to be directed at their daughter. “What is going on?” he asked. “Maria?”

“This whole world that you got me into when I met you,” Maria muttered without really revealing anything. She still was not in the mood. Lucy walked behind with her head down, and Michael was almost thinking he was wrong, and maybe it was something their daughter had done.

“What is it?” Michael asked. “Was it, something that happened at the meeting?”

“NO, that was super” Maria muttered. “All is well on that front,” she sighed thankfully on that front. Returning to Roswell does not have to end of my music career. But after what they had discovered. She almost wished it was. “It’s everything else,” she sighed. “I need to change. Maybe by then, I will want to be dealing with any of it,” she muttered as she walked past her husband and daughter and walked out of the kitchen, and upstairs. As she tried to rid the memories of long ago from her mind.

But it was not going to easy.

As Michael had been intending to get something to eat before he went back to packing. So, it only left him to be in the kitchen alone with Lucy. “What is going on?”

“Mom is in a mood,” Lucy muttered.

“I noticed,” Michael muttered. I know my wife’s moods and since I am notorious for causing them, well, I need to know what was going on. “Tell me, Lucy, what happened. Was it…”

“Something I did?” Lucy asked with a raise of her eyebrows. “No, this time, I am honestly in the clear. I was just a spectator in this one,” and it was true, even if you ignored that she was the one who got them into scene that unloaded so much that Maria was not wanting to know, because she had demanded that her mother stop the car, because she had to confront Archie about being at the motel.

Knowing that I will take him cheating on Claudia than being who he is she would think. Even though she did not know this Tess Handing. She was before my time she thought. Still, the woman was notorious within their circle. And one cannot be part of the family, and not know all the gory details, fit to tell us over the years because she was aware there was still a lot that she did not know she sighed. Which helped her parents because until recent days, she had been raised elsewhere.

And only spent summers back here in Roswell. Lucy murmured. One can go through a lot of the town, and not know the real lowdown she knew. “Seriously Dad, I am fine.”

“Then why in your mother about to explode?” Michael asked.

But before Lucy could explain, they both heard a very exasperated “Because the kid is back in this town.”

“What, wait, what kid?” Michael asked. Confused.

“Tess Harding’s kid” Maria muttered, and Michael’s mouth dropped open. Damn “I know,” she sighed as she looked at her own kid and remarked to herself how much different she was today than she was back in those days, and in this case, she did not want to remember because to remember those specific days would mean to remember how Tess had taken Alex from them.

“And you don’t know half of it,” Lucy remarked.

“What does Lucy mean?” Michael asked.

“Our daughter means the fact that it is not as simple as Tess’s child coming to seek out information on his birth mother, because in this case, that is not the case” Maria muttered, that would make it so much easier she sighed.

“What does that mean?” Michael asked as he could not believe what he had just heard. And he was not sure it was sinking in, because it was impossible, he thought. How could Tess’s child be back in town? he asked. Because he remembered that time and knew what the discovering meant for his friend. And he definitely knew the last thing Max needed was a reminder of that time because he had so many other memories to deal with…

What is in the air?

Indeed, and Michael did not even know, and Maria could not say it. Because she felt for Claudia, and she loved those exploitive talk shows back in her day. They were a lot of fun to laugh at

But who is laughing now? Maria muttered because even if Archie and Claudia are not related. Still, the degrees are pretty iffy she thought.

“Maria?” Michael asked as he could see his wife was in her head again.

“It’s the fact that it’s Archie Holmes” Lucy murmured, for her mother. Because she knew how this discovery was big for this group, even when on the other hand it was not, because Claudia’s father was not the father.

Archie? Michael asked. Do I know this, Archie? he muttered because it did not ring a bell. So, he basically admitted it. “Archie?” he asked. “Who is this, Archie?”

“Claudia’s boyfriend Dad,” Lucy muttered.

Holy Shit Michael muttered out loud this time, and Maria could agree. “That is impossible,” he asked. “How is that even possible?”

“This is what we get for raising the kids out of this town,” Maria muttered, even though it did not directly deal with them. “And Liz for raising Claudia away from any ties to this town, or our group” she sighed. “Not that we would not have the same situation if she had stayed or come back with Claudia before now. Because how would she know given that Tess’s son was supposedly put up for adoption, and that they moved away from this town.”

Michael was trying to process it. And it was hard to even comprehend it. So, he was trying to piece it together, piece by piece. “Are you telling me that Max’s daughter living in some far town or city away from even her father, just by the heck of it went and met up with Tess’s son and they formed a relationship?”

“And are sleeping together,” Maria muttered. Because she knew how serious their relationship had gotten because of those bitchy sessions on the phone or via the computer, when she was able to contact her best friend.

It was romantic at one time Lucy muttered to herself. That was before it rivaled a soap opera, or some sort of farfetched television show she sighed.

Shit Michael muttered. But remained silent.

“I know,” Maria muttered as she could see her husband trying to wrap around the idea. Hell, I am still wrapping my own brain around it.

“How in the hell did that happen?” Michael asked. How can this be? he asked himself as he tried to come to some understanding. This is too much he thought. How could this happen? “What does it mean?” he asked, “What does the kid want?”

“I have no idea,” Maria murmured.

“At this point, I say that he wants Claudia,” Lucy murmured.

Shit Michael murmured. Max is not going to like that…

*

Max certainly would not if he knew. And he was yet to be filled in on that part of the story. Because instead of going home. He twisted his car around and roared out into the desert and barricaded him in his trusty cavern. A place you had to have superhuman powers to get in, or power tools… But no one would come this way for that reason, because why would they because no one could believe an alien pod could be in the cavern.

It was a life he knew that was unique. But that life was making his head spin, and that was before he knew what was going on with his daughter. While in town, Liz left her family home and went back to the motel. She took a slightly longer route than one would take, even though they were in a small town. And it does not get long to get places, unless you force the delay she thought. But she knew she had to get home.

And she parked in the parking lot, and looked at her room, and sighed. And then she saw her son come out of the room, and head for the pop machine. Something that was too easy in a place like this she sighed. “JJ?” she called out at her son.

“Mom?” JJ asked as he turned at his mother’s voice. “You are finally here.”

“Sorry for the delay,” Liz said as she wondered if she was truly that sorry for being delayed, even how she was delayed. Max, she muttered. “I was delayed.”

“Obviously,” JJ muttered because she had heard his sister tell Tripp’s father that she had been meeting up with her father, I might be ten years old, but I know something had to happen he thought. He was too much of a modern kid to be naïve. “But you had to show up sometime?”

Wincing at the dismay at her son’s voice. She did not want to be that parent who was absent more than she was present. She knew that her career had flourished during her son’s still brief life, and she and she tried to be there for her son. More so than she had been with her daughter because school beckoned in Claudia’s first formative years, when I had to work and to be able to study, and to divert my memories of the life I had walked out on she muttered. So, she knew she had not been that present. But she had tried to change that, and that is why I changed my life she thought.

Because the last year had been a wakeup call.

The move back to Roswell was supposed to be a wakeup call. It was, but for a whole other purpose she murmured.

“JJ,” Liz said softly.

“Mom,” JJ muttered. “Claudia said you were busy?”

I definitely was busy Liz knew. She did not like how her daughter had to cover for her, with her little brother she thought. That should not be here role, but she knew it was in a lot of ways because it was something that mother and daughter had gotten used too. Because having a daughter who was a teenager and able to babysit was a godsent at times, and she was my backup she thought.

She had seen it as plain as day with Claudia in Arizona for the last five months and she was forced to deal with the fact she had a child at home, and she could not call every babysitter in the book, because of the world she thought.

It had burnt her out, which is why I needed the change. But I did not realize what it would mean to come back to this town she thought.

Obviously.

“I am glad your sister was helping you,” Liz said. “But where is she?” she asked. “Don’t tell me she left you alone?” she asked, knowing that she had just seen her son coming out of his motel room.

“Of course not,” JJ muttered. She is not you he wanted to say in his childish way because he did not understand what it all meant for his mother to be in the town that held her former husband. “But she needed space,” he muttered. “I rather be in my room than have to see her depressed,” he murmured. “She gave me cash for take out.”

My son the expert take-out master Liz muttered, and she knew what that made her. “Why is she not with you?” she asked as she sighed because she hated that this was the life, she was giving her son.

Please don’t tell me she left her brother here in the motel alone Liz wanted to say but did not. Because she knew her son would backup her daughter and given her extra curricular activities of the last few hours, she did not have a lot of ground to be standing on with her right to judge her daughter’s action.

“No,” JJ muttered. “She’s in your room.”

“Why is she there?” Liz asked.

“You can see for yourself,” JJ muttered. “I am getting something to drink. Forgot to order something with my burger.”

Burgers Liz thought. Memories of a yesteryear where she was always around burgers. She knew she had not had a good burger since she left the Crashdown all those years before.

“I am going back to my room,” JJ muttered as he came back to his mother, staying into space. What else is new. “Come get me, if you need me.”

Disenchantment with this life she could see in her son’s eyes, and she knew once more that she had to get her life together. She had to figure out what she was going to do. Because she could not keep up this routine she was doing. “I am sorry honey.”

“You can say that again, and maybe I will believe you” JJ muttered quietly.

He is not your average ten-year-old Liz knew of her son. How could he? she asked herself. After this last year.

And the life I have given him. Even if his life is far simpler than his sister’s first years.

But it was not the life she wanted to give to both of her children. Unfortunately, her daughter was now an adult, and she did not have a lot pull in that area. But then as she opened the door, and she saw her daughter sobbing on the bed, and she was immediately taken back years when she still had an impact on her daughter’s life.

When she could console her daughter, and make things right, before life gave her a teenager, an a rebellious one at that.

“Claudia?” Liz asked, as she entered the room after hearing the slam of the door next to them. “What’s wrong?”

“Everything,” Claudia moaned as the tears stopped as she saw her mother entering the motel room. And the months, and years of resentment and angst was momentarily vanishing because she might be eighteen, and officially an adult in the eyes of the law. But still, she was still a daughter who was facing heartbreak.

And a disaster she had not seen coming… As she got up from the bed and ran into her mother’s arms.

As Liz took her daughter into her arms, and for a minute, she saw the tension between them lift. As she also did the only thing she could do. Be the shoulder her daughter needed.

“Everything will be fine,” Liz murmured softly as she embraced her daughter.

But will it both woman thought. Because neither of them knew whether it would. But they stayed in the embrace some more, hoping beyond hope that things would make sense again.

[Parker1947]

It had been months and maybe even years since Liz felt this type of closeness with her daughter. She knew it was the burden of having a child grow up and become a teenager. They will always want to be their own person she knew. And given the life I once had, I know our life was very different Liz would think as she thought of those first years when Claudia was a pig tailed little girl. Believing everything she said. Hopping between locations and not caring about how her routine was changed in a span of a day or a week. Then they were able to settle down and bring JJ into their life.

And for a lot of that time, they were able to settle into a nice little routine. And then her daughter turned into a sullen teenager. And she could was unable to deal with it. Because she had to work to put a roof over their heads, because their life was so different than the one, she could have had if she had not walked out on her marriage and take her daughter away from the life she could have had.

She did not regret it. Even today, she did not regret it. Sure, she regretted that it was needed. And wished she could have made a different decision. But she had the scars to show that she had needed to make the decision she did. To take Claudia and start a new life. But there were certainly days when she regretted that as her daughter slammed doors and developed a wall between them.

And she was helpless to try to break it down. Neither mother nor daughter were able to bridge the gap that would develop. Even when most of the time they could be civilized to each other, but the tensions were still there. Which is why on the cusp of eighteen, she had agreed for her daughter to stay with her parents, because the guidance was needed.

And hopefully Mom and Dad could provide the consistency that I could never provide for her Liz murmured to herself. And from Liz could gather, the time had been a godsent for her daughter, but eventually her daughter wanted to get away from that kind of life, and chose to come here, and she fell into a life she could never have imagined.

And it was obvious to Liz that she and her daughter were different people. All parents are different from their daughters or children she thought, but not everyone is Claudia she thought. There were ways that her daughter was different from her, because I might have some small abilities, but they pale to being Claudia she thought. She fed the angst between them because she did not tell her daughter what she needed to know.

Or the minimum of it.

And then she changed their lives by coming back to the very place she had left. Expecting that things would be okay, but I definitely was not thinking she thought as she felt her daughter in her arms. As the tears were coming down her daughter’s face. “Honey, what is it?”

“Everything,” Claudia murmured.

“You said that before,” Liz asked. “Is it Archie?”

Archie’s name only made the tears come down with more frequency. She certainly remembered when she was bitterly disappointed by someone, she had feelings for her, the memories are still there she thought of those first days, months when Tess had come to town and everything started to spin out of control, and she started to get her clutches at Max, and he unbelievably was responding she said with annoyance.

She remembered the tears that came down, as she spoke to Maria about how bad it was. It was bad she thought. Why we did not suspect that something could be up she thought of the blonde traitor in their midst. Given how she came to town, and played with Max. And caused trouble between us she thought.

“Claudia?” Liz asked. “Is it Archie?”

Claudia started crying fully.

“Claudia?” Liz asked. “Did Archie hurt you?” she asked as she stepped out of the embrace and glance at her daughter. “Did he do something to you?”

Did he? Claudia thought as she stopped the tears. She was truly confused. She knew Archie had not done anything perse to him. “No,” she said as she brushed away the tears. “He did not hurt me, in the conventional sense” she sighed. “But he is the not the guy I thought he was…” she murmured as she did not know how to make sense of what she knew.

She had come down to her mother’s room because it made sense too. It was early on when it was obvious that JJ did not want to see her sulk around the motel room. So, he went to his own, with the promise that he would text her often, and that was the one thing that had kept her from having an emotional breakdown. The texts from her baby brother.

But then the tears began, and she did not know why they were coming. Because Archie did not do anything to her, except be different than the person she had thought he was. Disappointing me in the process she thought.

I knew he was adopted Claudia muttered. But I did not know that other stuff she thought as the ties to her own father, which would make the tabloids smile.

Logically she knew they were not related; my life could not be that bizarre she thought as she wanted this to make sense.

But it still hurt.

She did not know why.

“Honey?” Liz asked. “What is it?”

“It’s Archie…”

“I figured,” Liz sighed. “So, what is it?” she asked as she was trying to make sense of the breakdown her daughter was having. “You can tell me you know because I love you. And I want to help you. Because Claudia, I know we have not been that close and I am sorry about that, but you know you can come to me with anything, right?” she asked of her daughter. “I want to be able to help you with whatever is bothering you.”

“You hated Archie?”

“I don’t hate Archie,” Liz said in defence of her behavior. “I have told you that I like him. A good kid. I just wish you were not as serious as you are with him, because you deserve a chance to experience life. And enjoy it. And settling down this fast can lead to choices you wish you had not had to make, when you are older, and down the road and have time to look back.”

“Like you look back at your life?” Claudia muttered.

“My life is my life,” Liz sighed. “I don’t regret your father. I have never regretted your father,” she repeated once more. “I loved him from the first day I really saw him for the first time when I was fifteen. It was a lot of hard work being a relationship with him, and some of those days were not the easiest, but I never regretted saying yes to his proposal or marrying him. We did not work out for factors that were out of our control, but they were not about you, and maybe not even about us, because they were about so much more. Something much bigger than either of us,” she sighed. “I don’t want that for you. Because I want you to enjoy your life. And because yes, I did not get a chance to have the life I dreamt of when I was your age. As I went down a path that had a lot of hard knocks in it. And I don’t want that for you,” Liz sighed. I wish it could be so much easier. “I want you to go for your dreams. But as I have said. You are eighteen, and you can make your own decisions. If it’s Archie, then I will accept it. Because you will find yourself your own path. One that is different than the one your father and I went down…”

“I don’t know if it’s going to be Archie after all,” Claudia muttered.

“What do you mean?” Liz asked as she saw the emotion on her daughter’s face. “What is going on?” she asked. “I thought things were good between you. Because after all, he came to visit you?”

“He came alright,” Claudia muttered when she was beginning to think he should have stayed back in Colorado. We might be okay if he had not come here, she thought. I would not know what I know.

“Claudia?” Liz asked.

“I am fine” Claudia said as she was wiping away the tears. “You do not have to worry about me,” she said even though everything about her behavior showed that she was anything but fine and Liz knew what trying to bottle up your emotions can get you serious trouble. “Let it out,” she said simply. “Sometimes it’s a good thing to cry.”

“Why?” Claudia asked because she knew she was not much of a crier by nature. I do bottle things up she knew. That is just in my nature she mused. I have to be in control. And that means I cannot break down.

Even if any qualified doctor could tell her that everything she has been exhibiting since she showed up in town, was one slow emotional break down. Being beaten with so many emotions that it takes a hold eventually.

“I am fine,” Claudia sighed.

“You tell me you are fine, but I don’t think you are” Liz said softly. “I have cried many of a tear,” she sighed. Over your father she wanted to say but did not. “It does become better afterwards.”

“You did?” Claudia asked. “I don’t remember you crying?”

“Behind closed doors, namely my bedroom. When you were out of sight,” Liz said softly. “Talk it out,” she also consoled even though she had come from an encounter with her former husband when she had wanted to anything but talk about her emotions, I know I was trying to divert myself and Max from talking about the weighty subject at hand.

I still did not want to be dealing with that she knew. One day I might, but not right now she thought. I have other things I have to deal with.

Namely a daughter who is one breakdown from a full-on version.

“I hate it,” Claudia moaned.

“Most of us do too,” Liz sighed. “So, tell me, what is going on?” she asked. “Before I go and see that your brother has not put himself into a food coma with all the junk food he likely ordered?” she murmured because checking in on JJ is something she knew she had to do.

Claudia felt chastened by the mention of her brother. “Sorry for that, but I did not feel like having as company, and he definitely did not want to be around me,” Claudia sighed.

“It’s alright,” Liz sighed. Today it is understandable. “One day soon we will be back in a normal routine.”

Normal Claudia mused. “Normal, what is that?”

Liz could not help but smile. Because that is a question has long vexed me, she thought. Since the very beginning she thought. What good is normal? “It’s not easy,” she conceded. “But I have tried to make things as normal as I can for you, but the last year has been hard even for the most abnormal of times…”

Claudia nodded.

“So, about Archie?” Liz asked.

“I don’t want to talk about Archie,” Claudia complained. Because after all, the last thing she wanted to dwell on is that drama.

“Honey,” Liz sighed. I know a little something about trying to not talk about something troubling you. “I know something is wrong. You are moody, and you are upset. I know you have not had it easy these last few days since we came to this town, but I thought you and Archie were solid?” she asked. “I might disapprove of him staying with you at the apartment, but he seems to be a good guy who loves you a lot?”

“I thought so too,” Claudia muttered.

Liz knew something was troubling her daughter. “Claudia, please, tell me what is bothering you. Because I know something is,” Liz asked because she knew too much about keeping things bottled up, and it was beyond obvious that her daughter was hurting. She knew she would be doing her daughter a disservice if she walked away and not deal with this. This is what I should be dealing with instead of following my teenage desires. “Claudia?” she asked once more of her daughter.

“It sucks,” Claudia muttered.

“What does?” Liz asked.

“I of course knew Archie did not have the best home life. He hates his father. And his mother is busy most of the time. So, he and his sister spent a lot of time alone, or with babysitters,” Claudia sighed. “Before he cut loose for Colorado, but I never knew anything like what I now know…”

Liz knew a little about the Holmes home life. Even more than her daughter did. And how it was known to be combative. But it was never why she disapproved of her daughter’s romance with Archie. Despite the age difference. I would have been against anyone my daughter wanted she knew because she a little gun-shy about her daughter meeting someone, knowing how intense she had gotten over her first love, my only love she would amend. I don’t want that for my daughter.

Not yet anyways she thought. Can she not be older?

But that was not to be, so, she knew the Holmes house was a little livewire at times. Especially when Archie and his father were together. Before Colorado. And therefore, Claudia tended to keep Archie balanced, so she may have disapproved of the notion of them together, but she approved of how Claudia was concerned for Archie, but at the end of the day, she could stall but she knew what happens when you get in the way. Unfortunately, from experience she would mutter to herself. So, she went along with it. Although at times, not very silently. Because it gave her daughter something to occupy herself life at home, could be a little overwhelming.

Because I was often at work.

And then unfortunately, this last year, they had been apart more than they were together. Because of this damn year she muttered.

“Go on,” Liz muttered.

Claudia did not know how to say it except to blurt it out. “It seems like Archie’s birth mother has a connection to our family tree,” Claudia muttered softly. A little too softly, so Liz almost did not catch it. “Even if it’s as they say, six degrees of separation,” she muttered. Because I have no idea what the hell is going on she thought of her own damn life.

When is it going to be simple?

Flabbergasted, Liz was sure she had misheard it. He cannot be. “Honey, what are you talking about?” she asked. “There is no way Archie could be connected to our family tree as you so delicately put it,” she sighed because she knew the reality of their family tree. It is not normal by any part of the equation.

“Archie was adopted,” Claudia muttered.

“Yes, I know” Liz sighed.

Claudia did not need to know how her mother would know because it was not something she had talked about, probably the parent gossip vine she muttered to herself of how her mother might know. And did not ask anything more, and yes, it was the gossip vine but of it was more than that because Liz had Archie investigated. Not a deep dive she amended her thinking. Just a little checking here and there, so I knew he was adopted by the Holmes family when he was a baby. But Liz needed to know more from her daughter. Because she could not understand how Archie being adopted factored into any of this.”

“So,” Liz murmured.

“So,” Claudia muttered.

“Honey,” Liz muttered. Clearly needing to know.

Claudia knew she had opened a potential hornet’s nest, one that will get even wider once Mom knows she thought. And she knew how it was going to sound she thought. Insane and farfetched, right? “Mom,” she would say. So, again, she went with the blunt, and to blurt it out. “Archie might be Tess Harding’s kid.”

Silence enveloped the room.

Shit Liz said with an instant reaction. Which was the emotion Claudia could expect it. She knew what the first response would be from her mother. To deny it or think Claudia was trying to pull something over on her. “I am not fooling you, Mom. It seems like Archie’s birth name was Zan and his birth mother was Tess Harding, and that means, for about a minute and half, he was Dad’s son.”