Fathers and Sons (CC ALL,MATURE) {Complete} 10/01

[Midwest Max]

Title: Fathers and Sons
Author: Karen
Disclaimer: The characters of "Roswell" belong to Jason Katims, Melinda Metz, WB, and UPN. They are not mine and no infringement is intended.
Pairings/Couples/Category: CC – ALL
Rating: Mature
Summary: This is the 5th in the series, after Empire of the Son. How far will Nate go to protect the ones he loves?
Author's Note: Takes place 5 years after the end of “Empire of the Son”. Beautiful banner by the very talented Long Time Fan!



Part One

“When is she coming out?”

The voice was full of disappointment and Nate Spencer lowered the paper he was reading to look across the room. His half-sister, Emily, had her head on Alyssa Spencer’s belly, her little lips turned downward into a frown. Alyssa’s stomach was bulging, though not severely, beneath her cotton T-shirt.

“Not for a long time yet,” she said to the little girl.

Emily sat up, her long hair curling gently as it fell down her back. “I want my sister to come out now.”

Nate chuckled as he laid down his paper and crossed the room to join them on the couch. “She’s not your sister, Emily. She’s going to be your niece.” He gave a little grimace at the thought of a five-year-old becoming an aunt. Then again, Emily had been an aunt for the last year and a half. “Besides, we don’t know it’s a girl yet.”

Emily turned a defiant face to her brother, her expression very much that of a determined Liz Parker. “It is a girl. I know it.”

Over the tot’s head, Nate gave Alyssa an apologetic shrug. She had wanted the sex of this baby to be a surprise, and Emily had yet to learn when not to blat out things that she could sense that others couldn’t. Of course, she didn’t really understand that other people couldn’t do what she could. She thought she was normal.

“A girl, huh?” Nate asked his sister casually. He had already known that – through powers of his own – but had agreed not to tell his wife.

Emily nodded eagerly. “She’s going to have blond hair, like Alyssa. And blue eyes like yours.”

Alyssa deflated visibly, frowning. Nate felt a tug of remorse. As per usual, Emily’s blabbering was his responsibility in some way; at least that’s the way Nate always felt when Alyssa was disappointed in some way. He felt a great need to be the master of keeping her happy, though she never demanded so.

“Well, what are we going to name her?” Nate asked, pulling Emily onto his lap.

“How am I supposed to know that?” she replied, her voice that of an affronted chipmunk.

“You seem to know everything else.” He tickled her belly and she giggled, squirming.

Suddenly, she sat up quickly, her dark eyes round, her tiny lips forming an O. “The ice cream truck is coming,” she said in awe.

Nate mirrored her expression, then whispered, “I guess you’d better go get my wallet off my dresser then.”

Emily scrambled clumsily from his lap and scampered down the hallway without further conversation.

“Wait for me before you go outside!” Nate called down the hall. Then he looked sheepishly at Alyssa, who was still frowning. “Sorry about that…”

She sighed, smoothed her shirt over the bump. “It’s not your fault, Nate. I let her feel the baby moving in there. It was bound to happen.”

Nate looked down at her stomach, stretched with five months worth of growing baby. His eyes wandered up to her breasts, swollen in pregnancy. He had an almost unbearable urge to touch them, but he knew he couldn’t with Emily in the far reaches of the house rifling through his wallet for ice cream money.

“Is it still moving?” he asked hopefully.

Alyssa nodded, picking up his hand and placing it on her stomach. Nate was filled with a rush of happiness at feeling his baby tumbling within its mother’s belly. Grinning widely, he slid his hand around her bulge as he bent at the waist and placed his ear against her. With his superhuman hearing – which had developed in the last few years – he could just make out the rapid beat of a tiny heart deep within Alyssa’s body. He closed his eyes, a gentle humming connection flowing easily between mother, father and unborn daughter.

“I found it!” Emily screeched, waving Nate’s wallet before him.

The connection ended with a pop and Nate sat up, taking the billfold from his sister.

“Let’s go,” she said impatiently, dancing from one foot to the other. “He’s going to pass us by!”

Nate grinned as he climbed to his feet. Emily was already showing signs of acute hearing and he knew that the ice cream man was still blocks away, plenty of time to get to the curb and wait for him. But, when one is five and hungry for a treat, there is no patience. Emily immediately grabbed his hand and started tugging him for the door.

“Want anything?” he called, looking over his shoulder at Alyssa.

She shook her head.

Nate felt another rush of happiness, just looking at her sitting there on the couch, round and healthy. As Emily pulled him out of the door, he mouthed the words, “I love you,” to her, which made her grin and blush slightly in return.

They’d married three years prior, when Nate was twenty-two and Alyssa was twenty. The wedding had been small, family only. It seemed that the more involved they became with one another and the more the alien madness had escalated, the fewer friends they had.

When they married, Alyssa had just finished a four-year degree in three years, but Nate had never returned to school after flunking out his freshman year. There were other things in store for Nate Spencer than going to college. He had, in fact, followed in his father’s footsteps.

A year and a half after marriage, their first child had arrived – a boy they named Jacob Andrew. They called him Jake. There had been much discussion around his name, with Nate wanting to name him after Max and Alyssa wanting to name him after Michael. Then they realized that it might offend Jonathan Spencer, Nate’s adoptive father, to do either. In the end, they had named him after nobody.

Alyssa’s pregnancy had been a tenuous time in their lives. Nate still carried the knowledge that once upon a time, in a different time line, she had been pregnant and lost that child. She didn’t have the memories of that altered life, but she was aware of what had happened. Every twinge, every discomfort, every bought with nausea was a cause for panic. It didn’t help that Nate was now gone so much, leaving her to worry alone.

But Jake was a healthy baby boy, with a good appetite and an even better disposition. He smiled all of the time and never fussed about being put to bed. He was an angel. From what Emily had announced earlier, his sister would look totally different from him in terms of coloring – whereas she was predicted to be blond and blue-eyed, Jake had his father’s dark hair and his mother’s deep brown eyes.

“It’s coming!” Emily said, jumping up and down like she was on a spring.

“I see it,” Nate said, not really looking but digging in his wallet for some money.

“I want a Klondike bar!” she announced, grabbing him by the pant leg.

“Okay.”

“The crunchy kind!”

“Okay.”

“It has to be the crunchy kind!” she screeched in demand.

Nate stopped looking for bills and looked down at her, one eyebrow raised. Immediately, she settled down and waited patiently. Even though he looked reprimanding on the surface, he was giggling to himself inside. Emily was a rambunctious child and sometimes got a little too wound up. He’d learned a while ago that his height was a little intimidating to someone her size and that if he looked at her sternly enough from that height, she would settle down in a heartbeat. No words needed, no harm done.

The ice cream truck pulled to a stop before them and Nate took Emily’s hand. She struggled to see into the truck, so he picked her up and propped her on his hip.

“Hey, Emily,” the driver said. “I haven’t seen you in a while.”

“I’ve been with my mommy,” she said, her eyes traveling quickly over the interior of the van. Curious like a cat. “But now I’m staying with my brother.”

“Hey, Nate,” the driver said.

“Hi, Phil.”

“She’s staying with you now, huh?” Phil was smirking slightly.

“Only the weekend.” Nate glanced at Emily and rolled his eyes, making the driver laugh. “Can we have a Klondike Bar – the crunchy kind? And, hmm, what do I want, Emily?”

Emily looked at him like he was stupid. “You want the same thing you always get – a fudgecicle.”

“Well, there you have it,” Nate laughed, preparing to hand the driver the bills.

“And Alyssa wants a nutty buddy, but she’s afraid she’s getting fat,” Emily said matter-of-factly.

Phil laughed, but Nate looked at her in surprise. It was an odd assumption on the part of a five-year-old, who weren’t known for being particularly body conscious. Nate had to believe that she’d sensed that from Alyssa. Or she’d read her mind…which was an unsettling prospect.

“Well, I guess we’ll respect her wishes and not get her anything then,” Nate said, trying to keep the worry out of his tone. He handed the driver the money and took their treats, waved as the man pulled away.

They sat together on the front step of the house Nate and Alyssa had purchased a few months before Jake had been born. She had a good job and he found that “working for the cause” had its benefits – while they didn’t compensate him enough to live in a home like the Ramirezes had, they did give him enough to live comfortably.

Emily pulled the wrapper away from her ice cream and bit into it, her little face lighting up with joy. Nate simply watched her for a few minutes – she was totally immersed in the treat, every ounce of her being concentrated on it. She was a tiny little girl, having inherited the petite frame of her mother. Her face was heart-shaped, her dark eyes wide and accented with long lashes. In fact, she was a beautiful child. Isabel had even used her as a model for a line of children’s dresses she was now carrying at her shop.

Pleased that his little sister was satisfied with her ice cream, Nate bit into his and looked across the street. It was a nice late-summer day, the air cool with the pending arrival of fall. There wouldn’t be many more days for the ice cream man to make his rounds. He dreaded the day he’d have to tell Emily that the ice cream truck didn’t run year round.

“Nate?”

He looked down at his little friend, whose face was scrunched up in question. “Yeah, sweetie?”

“When am I going to get a sister?”

Nate hid the frown that almost curved his lips. He knew that Max and Liz hadn’t planned on even having her, even though now that they did they felt extremely blessed. They were both over forty now and Max’s out-of-town lifestyle had not slowed down at all. The chances of Emily having a sister were slim.

“What? A brother’s not enough for you?” he teased.

She clucked her tongue. “But you’re old, Nate.”

He laughed in spite of her rude remark, taken off guard. To her, he was old. “I am? Ow, that hurt.”

She rolled her eyes. “Okay, so you’re not that old. Not old like Grandpa. Or Daddy. That’s old.”

Nate snickered to himself as he bit into his ice cream. Max would just love to hear that his daughter thought he was ancient.

“But when can I have a sister my own age?”

He sighed. “Not everyone has siblings their age, Emily. I didn’t have any siblings at all until I had you.” And by that time, he’d been old enough to have children of his own.

Emily frowned, then sniffled lightly.

“Hey,” he said, drawing her onto his lap. “Why the tears?”

“I don’t want to be alone,” she said unhappily.

“Oh, sweetie, you’re never going to be alone,” he soothed, rocking her. “You’re always going to have me, and Mommy and Daddy, and Jake and the new baby. We’re always going to be here.”

She was silent and Nate had an awful feeling in the pit of his stomach that she knew something he didn’t.

tbc

[Midwest Max]

Part Two

It was only nine thirty when Nate had both Emily and Jake put down for the night. Entering his bedroom, he saw Alyssa sitting up against the headboard, a magazine in her hands, a look of utter disgust on her face. She was wearing a short baby doll nightgown, her shapely legs stretched out before her. Nate fell over crosswise on the bed, onto his side, propped his head up in his hand.

“Have you ever,” she began, “seen anything more pathetic?”

Alyssa held up the magazine and Nate’s eyes drifted to the cover. It was a weekly entertainment publication and this week’s cover story was that of the Broadway debut of ex-pop diva Maria Deluca. He grinned up at his wife.

“Don’t smile at me,” she said. “You know how I feel about this.”

He shrugged his broad shoulders. “What’s the problem? I think it’s great that your mom has a new career.”

“Please,” Alyssa snorted, slapping the magazine shut and tossing it onto the nightstand. “There is nothing more pitiful than an aging pop princess trying to re-invent herself.” She crossed her arms over her chest in defiance.

Nate looked at the magazine silently. Personally, he was glad that Maria had moved on, that she’d found another creative outlet. She was an artistic person and would never be content with a domestic, suburban life like the rest of them. Of course, Alyssa still had issues with her mother, issues that Nate knew wouldn’t be resolved with anything he had to say. All he could do was be understanding when she got like this. There was also the hormone thing to consider…

Reaching out, Nate caressed the smooth skin of Alyssa’s knee and she lifted an eyebrow in his direction. He grinned at her and eventually she had to smile back. Seven years together and he still hadn’t tired of touching her.

“Forget about it,” she said with a sigh. “Mom is mom and she’s going to do whatever she damned well pleases.”

Nate nodded obediently. Yep, that was truth. Alyssa wanted it to be so, so he agreed. At least on the outside. “I think you’re beautiful,” he announced.

Alyssa laughed lightly. “Yeah, I know, Nate. You tell me every day.”

“And you get more beautiful every day.” He inched a little closer, ran his hand over her belly. “Even with this here. It makes you ungodly beautiful.” Leaning over, he placed a kiss on her abdomen.

Alyssa was looking at him suspiciously. “Okay, that was a little schmaltzy, even for you.”

Nate’s ears redden and he leaned back against his hand. “Schmaltzy or not, I meant it.”

She cocked her head. She could see straight through him when he tried.

Nate sighed. “Okay, all right. Jeez, try to pay a girl a compliment – ”

“What happened.”

He looked down at her toenails, painted a deep maroon. “I think Emily might be able to read minds or something.”

Alyssa raised an eyebrow. “Why do you think that?”

Nate scratched his chin, a day’s worth of stubble grown there. “Did you want ice cream earlier?”

She scowled slightly. “No. I told you I didn’t.”

“But why didn’t you?”

“I don’t know. Just because I didn’t.”

He bit his lip. How to say this one without lighting the hormonal powder keg? “Um, Emily thinks you did want something – a nutty buddy to be specific.”

Alyssa was silent, perhaps a little stunned.

“She said you didn’t want it because…well, you think you’re fat.”

At that, she looked down into her lap, picked at her fingernail. Nate knew then that it was true.

“Did you really think that earlier?” he asked gently.

She shrugged. “Maybe.”

Nate rubbed her leg again in reassurance. “You’re not fat, Alyssa. You’re pregnant. And even if you were fat, I wouldn’t care. I love you to death, regardless.”

She lifted her eyes and gave him a small smile.

He smiled in return, then looked a little uneasy. “So how did she know?”

Alyssa looked into the distance for a moment, then shook her head. “Who knows? She’s alien all over the place. Her dad’s half alien. Her mom’s full something. God knows what Emily’s made of.”

“Doesn’t it worry you?”

“Not at the moment,” Alyssa said, shifting onto her side and sliding down so that she was lying on the bed. “At the moment I want you to hold me, you sexy thing.”

Nate grinned widely and climbed in behind her – the only comfortable position they had these days. He wrapped his arms tightly around her and pulled her back against him. Closing his eyes, he breathed in the smell of her perfume, lost himself in the rhythm of her breathing.

“I meant what I said,” he whispered against her ear. “I think you’re beautiful and I’m going to love you until the day I die, Alyssa Spencer.”

With an effortless, backhanded wave, Nate used his powers to lock their bedroom door. Then he kissed her neck, felt her body shiver as he caressed the round bulge of her belly. His hand traveled upward, captured one of her breasts and she drew in a quick breath.

“Sorry,” he said into her neck. “Does that hurt?” Her breasts had been sensitive of late.

“Yeah,” she whispered. “But don’t stop.”

Nate smiled – pregnant or not, his girl was still a little masochistic. He slid his hand under her nightie and held her breast again; it was full, heavy, beautiful to his touch. He groaned as he took her earlobe between his teeth.

Alyssa reached behind herself and dropped Nate’s zipper. Pregnancy made her particularly randy and he was doing nothing to quell the fire. “I want you,” she breathed over her shoulder.

Nate nodded, removed his hand from her nightie to help her release him from his jeans. Then he pushed down her panties and slowly joined her from behind. They both groaned at the same time, the need for one another overwhelming.

Alyssa was usually very vocal when she made love. Tonight, however, Nate knew that his little sister was in the house and she was definitely old enough to go home and report to Max and Liz that there had been strange noises coming from her brother’s bedroom. At the first signs that his wife was about to become vocal, he slid his hand around her face and let his forefinger slide sideways into her mouth.

“Emily,” he gasped in explanation and Alyssa nodded her head in understanding.

Nate marveled at how warm her body seemed. As with her last pregnancy, she seemed to always be hot, her body temperature running a couple of degrees hotter than normal. Not that she was sick, just usually uncomfortable. To him, the sensation was almost unbearable.

“I love you,” he breathed into her ear, quickening his motions. “I love you so much.”

Gagged with his finger, she nodded eagerly in agreement. Then she was whimpering, biting down with too much force to keep herself from crying out. Spurned on by the pain, Nate quickly followed her, his world momentarily rocking.

They lay together for a long while, panting, exhausted. Nate listened for any indication that they’d awakened either child, but heard nothing – all he could heard was the soft, steady sounds of their breathing as they slept. Then he slid his hand over Alyssa’s belly, checking to make sure they hadn’t damaged the baby. It was an irrational fear, but he still did it every time anyway.

“I don’t know how you do it,” Alyssa said in a daze. “But you just keep getting better.”

Nate smiled, then lifted his hand toward his face. There was a perfect imprint of Alyssa’s teeth on either side, droplets of blood where her canines would be. “I can see that.”

She looked over her shoulder, then frowned guiltily. Rolling over clumsily, she took his hand in hers. “Baby, I’m sorry. Let me see that.”

But he winked at her and waved his opposite hand over the wound, which disappeared completely. Alyssa turned his hand over, looking for any signs of the marks that had been there and found none.

“Damn,” she said. “You’ve gotten good at that, too.”

Smiling, he pulled his hand away and then took her into his arms as he rolled onto his back. She sprawled across him, exhausted. Long after she fell asleep, he stared up at the ceiling, listening to the sounds of nighttime around him. Eventually, he used his powers to turn off the bedside lamp and fell asleep with her.

In the morning, still buzzing in the afterglow, Nate made breakfast for Emily and Jake while Alyssa slept in. Jake was easy – a pile of dry Cheerios and a bowl of oatmeal – but Emily was the picky one. But Nate was in such a good mood that not even her finicky behavior could dampen his spirits.

Halfway through breakfast, Alyssa shuffled out from the bedroom and plopped into a chair at the table. Her hair was mussed, her eyes little slits, but she still managed to lean over and kiss her son on the cheek, causing him to squirm and giggle. Nate kissed the top of her head and immediately brought her a cup of decaffeinated coffee. She looked at it with mild disappointment.

“I know, sweetheart,” he said sympathetically. “In a few months you can have the real thing. What do you want for breakfast?”

Alyssa eyed Emily’s plate of scrambled eggs. “Not that,” she replied, looking slightly nauseous. “Feel like making pancakes?”

Nate nodded quickly and moved to start the skillet. She watched him go, laughed lightly as his overly-obvious, overly-happy mood. If Emily and Jake were just a little older, they would definitely know that Nate had been laid the night before.

He even sang while he mixed the pancake batter.

“Why’s he so happy?” Emily asked warily, her dark eyes accusing.

Alyssa smirked as she sipped from her cup. “Why don’t you ask him?”

The little girl swiveled in her chair. “Nate – why are you so happy?”

He stopped, startled, and cast Alyssa a meaningful glance. “Am I not allowed to be happy? What have I got to be unhappy about?”

Emily grimaced as she turned back around. “But you’re acting goofy.”

Nate shook an accusing finger at Alyssa, who hid her grin behind her cup again. He was about to make a lewd gesture when the phone rang. Reaching across the counter, he picked it up.

“Hello? Oh, hey, Dad!”

Alyssa’s ears perked up. It had to be Jonathan Spencer because Nate never had developed the habit of calling Max ‘Dad.’ She watched her husband silently, becoming concerned as his expression fell.

“Oh. What did they say? How long? Oh. No, it’s okay, Dad. I’ll be right there.”

Stunned, Nate hung up the phone, mechanically flipped a pancake before it burned in the skillet. The kitchen was silent except for the sizzling of the griddle and Jake’s happy gurgles.

“Honey?” Alyssa asked cautiously.

Nate looked up from the stove, his expression a polar opposite of what it had been moments before.

Alyssa swallowed, chewed the corner of her mouth. “What it is?”

A tiny glimmer of a tear shined in Nate’s blue eyes, but it was gone as he stubbornly maintained his tough exterior. “I have to go home. My mom’s dying.”

tbc

[Midwest Max]

Part Three

After dropping off a severely disappointed Emily, Nate drove solemnly out to Cape Cod, his chin in his hand, his elbow resting on the open window of the truck. He hadn’t been able to explain to his little sister that their weekend together had just been abruptly cancelled due to someone he cared about being very sick. Emily hadn’t been sick a day in her life and had no concept of illness nor dying. Being inquisitive, she’d asked many frustrated questions, leaving him with a look that implied he might be lying to get rid of her. He sighed heavily. One thing he’d learned was to never disappoint a kid and now he had that to deal with on top of everything else.

“Aubrey,” he said aloud, without removing his chin from his hand.

In the back seat of the extended-cab pickup, the protector suddenly appeared. As per usual, her eyes were hidden by the latest trendy, designer-label sunglasses. “Sir,” she said.

“I need to go to New York,” he said in the rearview mirror. Of course, Aubrey probably already knew this because she never left his side and more than likely had heard – but Nate still liked to live the fantasy that she wasn’t really there every minute watching his every move.

“As you wish, sir.”

Nate sighed again. “We should leave as soon as possible. I’ll check with the airlines when I get home.”

When they traveled, Aubrey remained visible so that she could legally get a seat on the plane. It was rough, especially on crowed flights, to get her on board invisible without something weird happening. For all of her invisibility, she still had substance and could still set off metal detectors and still needed a place to put her rump on the plane. But once they were on the ground, she would conveniently blend into the walls again.

They rode a ways in silence, then Nate pulled into the Ramirez estate, brought the truck to a stop outside of the garage that had been his home for many years. Now Jeremy officially resided there, finally having the space all to himself. Nate turned in his seat to address his protector.

“I’ll only be a minute,” he explained.

“I’ll set up a perimeter.”

Before he could stop her, Aubrey had vanished again, off to “secure the premises.” Nate blinked a couple of times, her actions totally unnecessary. He’d tried over the years to get her to loosen up a bit, but that’s not what she was about. She was here to serve and protect and she absolutely never let her guard down.

Nate climbed the wooden steps to the loft apartment above the garage, his feet feeling heavy. Jeremy had become his second, much as Michael Guerin had been Max’s. It was only fair that Nate let him know what was going on.

But when he got to the top of the stairs, it wasn’t Jeremy who was sitting on the couch watching television – it was one of the twins. Inside, despite the gravity of other things going on, Nate felt a stab of glee – maybe the twins crashed Jeremy’s privacy as much as Jeremy had crashed Nate’s. It was just rewards, for sure.

“Hi, Jason,” Nate said in greeting.

The twin looked at him expressionlessly. “I’m Justin.”

“Of course you are.” Nate sighed. “Where’s your brother?” It was odd to see one twin without the other.

As soon as he had that thought, Jason leaned around his twin and looked equally unimpressed at Nate’s arrival. “I’m right here.”

Nate shook his head slightly. Sitting together on the couch, side by side, one twin had shielded the other from view. It was almost as though they were one person. Which they may as well have been – they did everything together, looked alike, sounded alike. Nate scratched his eyebrow.

“Have you guys seen Jeremy?” he asked.

They shrugged in unison.

Nate’s heart was too heavy to put the effort into pulling information out of them, so he descended the stairs and stood before the garage, his hands on his hips. Isabel’s car was gone – he assumed she was at her store – as was Jesse’s Cadillac. Maybe Jeremy was with one of them…

“Aubrey.”

Two seconds later, the protector was at his side. “Sir.”

“Have you seen Jeremy Ramirez?”

“On the beach, sir.”

Nate nodded, then headed out that way. The air was heavy, summer doing its best to ward off the coming of autumn. It made sense that Jeremy would have sought refuge from the heat on the sandy shores of Cape Cod. Of course, the Ramirezes had a private beach, so finding him shouldn’t be hard.

Typical, Jeremy had the latest of his harem down on the beach, laughing and splashing in the water. Over the last few years, he’d really filled out. While not overly tall, he was built solidly, his bronzed sink tight over the muscles of his chest and arms. The girl was also tanned, but blond and very toothy.

Nate waved a hand in his cousin’s direction and Jeremy immediately started for shore. The girl pouted for effect, then started floating on her back, basking in the sun. Once he reached the sand, Jeremy jogged inland, his grin a mile wide. It had taken some time, but he’d managed to put the horrors of killing Khivar and Nicholas behind him and was once again a happy, affable young man.

“Hey, cuz,” Jeremy said, extending a hand for Nate to shake. “Didn’t expect to see you this weekend.”

“Yeah, I know. Listen, Jeremy, I’ve got some bad news,” Nate said, not really wanting to say the words out loud.

Jeremy’s grin faded. “Oh, no. What happened? Nothing with Alyssa and the baby?”

Nate shook his head. “No, they’re fine. I have to go to New York. My mom’s…” Dying was such a hard word to say. “She’s sick.”

“Dude, that’s horrible. Anything I can do?”

“Nah,” Nate said, self-consciously kicking at the sand. “Just check in on Alyssa every now and then? I don’t know how long I’ll be gone.”

“Sure, anything.” Jeremy’s dark eyes were filled with compassion. “When are you leaving?”

“Hopefully this afternoon.”

“Okay, well, don’t worry about anything here. I’ve got in under control.”

Nate’s eyes drifted to the buxom blond who was wading her way out of the surf. “I can see that.”

Jeremy followed his line of sight, then grinned. “Isn’t she something?”

She was something with big teeth and even bigger boobs. Nate clapped his cousin on the shoulder, then said his goodbyes.

At home, Nate stared into his suitcase, at a loss as to what he should pack. He kept a bag ready for whenever the call came that he was needed for the cause, but this was different. He had a nagging thought at the back of his head that he should pack his dark suit, but it was a morbid thought that he didn’t want to entertain. Emma Spencer was still alive – to pack a suit for her funeral seemed highly inappropriate. But from what his father had said, she was fading fast. To have to shop for a suit at the last moment didn’t feel right either.

“Nate.”

He looked up and found Alyssa standing in the doorway, Jake balanced on her hip.

“We’re coming with you,” she announced.

Nate shook his head slowly, sat down on the bed beside the suitcase. “No, honey, it’s okay.”

She shook her head, her dark eyes never leaving his. “No, it’s not. I love your mom, too. I want to be there.”

Nate’s eyes drifted to Jake, who was staring up at the ceiling fan, mesmerized. “Jake has never flown. And you’re pregnant,” he pointed out.

“I can fly and he can too,” Alyssa countered lightly.

“We agreed not to put you into any stressful situations,” he said carefully. Although she’d carried Jake just fine and showed no signs of complications with this pregnancy, they still weren’t taking any chances.

Alyssa shrugged. “Fine, then we’ll drive.”

There was no argument left in Nate, the fight was all gone. He simply looked at her tiredly.

Alyssa put Jake on the floor, easing the ache in her back. “Nate, please don’t shut me out,” she said quietly.

He lifted his eyebrows slightly in surprise.

“I can see it,” she said. “We’ve never done this with one another, please don’t start now.”

Nate looked at the floor, at his son who was picking at his toes. Another heir to a throne they’d never see. Alyssa crossed the room and sat down beside her husband, took his hand in hers. Nate looked at her wedding ring, the engagement ring it had taken him forever to save for.

“I never told her,” he said wistfully.

“I know,” Alyssa replied.

“She’s going to die without ever knowing what I am.” He snorted a bitter laugh. “She thinks I work with Max at the Oceanographic Institute. I never cared about marine life, Al. I didn’t even really like science class. But she never once batted an eye when I told her I was going to be an oceanographer.”

Alyssa rubbed his hand, then put her arm around his shoulders and kissed him on the cheek in comfort.

“I always wondered if somehow deep down she knew I was lying to her,” he said. “But maybe she just accepted that moved on.” He felt a little sting of tears in his eyes. “Maybe she just accepted me.”

“Your mom loves you,” Alyssa agreed. “Like you were her own. I don’t think anything you could do or be would change that.”

Nate looked at his wife seriously. “Should I tell her?”

She shrugged lightly. “That’s your decision, Nate. It’s always been your decision.”

That much was true. For the longest time, he’d wanted to tell both of his parents, but something in the end would always convince him he shouldn’t. Before he knew it, months had turned into years, the lies piled up and telling them seemed an impossibility. He and Max had had lengthy discussions on the topic, with always the same result – it was Nate’s decision.

Alyssa smiled gently, then rose from the bed and pulled another suitcase from the closet. Jake watched her with wide, curious eyes.

“What’s it going to be?” she asked, popping open the case. “New York Thruway or the friendly skies?”

Inside, Nate felt a tug of relief. He hadn’t wanted her to come at first, but now that she’d manipulated her way in, he was glad to have her.

tbc

[Midwest Max]

Welcome back, mareli And congrats on your best feedbacker win


Part Four

Twenty years old and Nate’s tree house showed no signs of falling from the huge oak tree where Jonathan had built it. It was quality workmanship and would probably last until the day that even Jake outgrew it. If Nate ever outgrew it first, that was.

As always, the tree house was the one place where he could hide away from the world, where the only sounds around him were those of nature – birds, bees, the wind in the branches of the mighty oak. No traffic, no voices, no chaos.

No hospitals.

Nate hadn’t been prepared for their trip to the hospital. He thought that on the ten hour drive from Boston he’d prepared himself rather well, but he hadn’t. The drive had been relatively uneventful – Alyssa’s back ached every now and then but that was about the only negative aspect. Jake, as was his usual, was the best baby anyone could ask for. He slept, he entertained himself in his car seat, he let them know when he was hungry or wet only to return to his good nature once he was satisfied. Nate and Alyssa had been blessed with a little prince indeed. Sometimes Nate looked at his son with envy – he didn’t ever remember being that happy as a child.

Even though the trip had been smooth, the journey to the hospital had not been. Nate had been home for Easter – only four months before – and Emma had looked healthy if a little tired. Now, she was a shell of the robust woman she had once been. Whatever was taking her was ravaging her brutally in the process. Thin and wan, her head covered in a turban-style wrap, she hadn’t even had the energy to awaken and talk to her adopted son.

Staring into the tree tops, Nate bit his bottom lip and felt an unwelcome sting of tears in his eyes. His mother must have been sick at Easter and kept it from him. If he had known then, would he have helped her? Would he have exposed his secret? And now that he knew the truth about her, was it too late to give up the truth about himself and still save her?

Nate looked down at his hand. When he’d been unable to rouse her from her sleep, he’d sat down beside her bed and taken her hand in his. Max taught him years before that in order to heal it wasn’t necessary to name the illness, only to identify that one existed. So while Nate could shake peoples’ hands and get a sense of infection or disease, he couldn’t put clinical names like cancer or Alzheimer’s or tonsillitis to the ailments. In holding his mother’s hand, he felt something blacker and more deadly than he ever had. The sensation had shaken him to the core, nearly stealing his own breath out of his lungs, and it felt like some residual effect of that was lingering. He felt chilled to the bone.

Understandably so, Nate had had to fight off the urge to attempt to heal Emma right there. Whatever was taking her was a formidable foe and he’d immediately wanted to fight it. But Jonathan had been in the room, as had a nurse and another patient sharing Emma’s room. No, if Nate was going to do this thing, he had to do it when no one was looking.

After all, it wouldn’t be the first time he’d broken into a hospital in the middle of the night.

Nate frowned, remembering events of that lifetime that he’d changed. Alyssa had been sick after having miscarried their first child and Nate had used his budding mindwarping abilities to break into the hospital and steal her away. Of course, it had been a rash, poorly planned idea and security cameras had caught the whole thing. When Nate used the cone from Tess Harding’s crash to alter that timeline, the escapades from the hospital were mercifully nullified.

But out of that mess, Nate had learned that Max’s wife, Liz, had developed the power to mindwarp. Over the last few years, she’d taught him how to not use the power on accident and he’d vowed to never use it intentionally. It was a promise he’d had no problem keeping until this day.

Until this day…

“So it is true – sexy men do grow on trees after all.”

Nate was shaken from his inner musings by a voice below him. Leaning out, he saw Alyssa beneath the tree house, her face turned upward, one hand shielding her eyes and the other holding her aching back. Her belly protruded adorably before her. Nate couldn’t help but smile at her. She’d never been to the tree house and until this day had probably never even known it existed. But, she would always be able to find him, like
iron drawn to a magnet.

“Is it safe - can I come up?” she asked.

Nate nodded. “Be careful.”

He grinned a little to himself as he got the overhead view of her climbing the ladder to the tree house, having to maneuver around the bulge of the belly. When she neared the top, he reached out and took her by the arm, pulled her safely into the house. She sat beside him and immediately began looking around the inside of Nate’s hideaway, a smile playing on her full lips.

“This is cool,” she said. “I wish I’d had one of these when I was a kid.”

Nate furrowed his brow. “Do they have trees in New Mexico?”

She dropped her gaze to his and rolled her eyes. “Yes, Nate.” Then she sighed, relenting. “But not big old trees like this one. Besides, what kid wants to play in a tree house when it’s one hundred and ten degrees out?”

Nate gave a nod in agreement, then fell still as Alyssa’s eyes landed on a heart carved in the wood plank of the wall – inside were the initials NS and AO. Annie. Before he could stop the images, Nate remembered that the last time he’d seen Annie on friendly terms, the last time he’d kissed her, the last time he’d made love to her, had been in this very tree house. It had been cold that morning and in his mind he could still see the goose bumps that had popped up on her pale skin. He felt a stab of pain inside, a twisting of guilt that he would carry to his grave; in some way, he would always feel responsible for Annie O’Donnell’s death.

Reaching past his wife, Nate waved his hand over the carving, restoring the wood to its unmarred state. Alyssa looked at him in surprise, then waved her hand over the spot, returning the graffiti. He lifted his eyebrows quickly – he hadn’t been expecting that.

Smiling softly, Alyssa picked up his hand, rubbed the back of it gently. “You can’t erase the past, Nate.”

Actually, he could. And he had. Not that he’d had much choice, but he fully understood the magnitude of what he’d done – he’d understood it then, too. Frowning, he said, “I don’t want to think about Annie. I wish things with her had never happened.”

“I don’t,” she replied bluntly, receiving another surprised look from her husband. “Without knowing how wicked Annie was, how would you realize how wonderful I am?” She said it with a deadpan expression, but could only hold it for a few moments before she burst out laughing.

Nate smiled with her, wanting to be light and free in this special place but not really feeling it completely.

“Besides,” Alyssa said, seriousness coming back to her tone. “Without everything that happened that fall, we may never have met. And where would you be without me?”

Nate worked his mouth, his fragile state threatened to break loose at any moment. “Lost,” he said simply.

She gave him a tender, sympathetic look, then reached over and put her arms around him. Nate closed his eyes, buried his nose in her long blond hair and tried to put thoughts of Annie out of his mind. He wanted his sanctuary to belong to him and Alyssa. He wanted the ghosts of his past to dissolve. Wishing more than anything that things like that could happen, he let the rhythm of her soft breathing entrance him, calming his aching soul.

“You’ll never be lost as long as I’m alive,” she finally said quietly against his ear. She kissed his temple, his cheek, and finally his lips.

Nate lost himself in her for a few moments, then pulled away, staring despondently into his lap. Kissing Alyssa, perhaps even making love to Alyssa, was not going to change the fact that a few miles away his mother was dying.

Alyssa touched his cheek, wove her fingers into his hair. Her dark eyes were kind, her touch comforting. “I left Jake with your dad,” she said. “He’s taking a nap. We can stay up here as long as you want.”

Nate sighed heavily. “My mom doesn’t have that much time left,” he said solemnly. If he had his way, he’d never come down from his tree house.

“What do you want to do, Nate?”

He lifted his gaze to hers, saw in her eyes that she knew all that was rolling around in his head. “I don’t know,” he answered honestly.

She laid a kiss on his forehead. “Talk to me,” she said quietly.

Nate bit his lip, shook his head. “She’s so sick, Alyssa. I don’t even know if…I don’t know if I could heal her. Even if I had the opportunity.”

“Is that what you want to do?”

He paused for a moment, then shook his head again. “I don’t know. There are so many questions, you know? I keep thinking about the story Max told me about Liz’s grandmother having a stroke. Liz went to him and asked him to heal her.”

“And what happened?” Of course, Alyssa already knew the answer, but continued to coax him into talking.

“He refused.” Nate looked into the distance, out at the treetops again. “He knew that it wasn’t his choice to make.”

“How did he know?”

“I don’t know that either. And that’s what bothers me. He healed Liz. He healed Jeremy when he was born. He doesn’t seem to have any regrets about that. And yet he knew he shouldn’t heal Liz’s grandma.”

“You healed Uncle Max,” Alyssa added, smiling. For that – and many other reasons – Nate would always be her hero. “How did you know you should heal him?”

Nate frowned. “I didn’t. That just happened. I had no control over it.” He sighed again and scrubbed his face with his hand. “God, Al, she’s the only mom I’ve ever had. She’s dying and it’s just tearing me apart inside.”

Alyssa worked her mouth, tears threatening in her eyes.

“And I don’t know what to do.” He said the words with disgust, disgust at himself. “Here I sit, Mr. Indecision.”

She reached over and took his hand again. “What can I do to help?”

“Nothing,” he said glumly, saw her slim shoulders deflate slightly. When he saw her disappointment, he felt a tug of regret and squeezed her hand lightly. “Nothing that you aren’t doing already. Just being here for me is enough, Alyssa.”

She smiled at him, a pretty girl, then winced.

Nate’s eyes fell immediately to her belly. He couldn’t take any tragedy related to his daughter – not now, not ever. “What is it?” he asked hurriedly. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, it’s okay,” she said, shifting her weight. “The little wench just kicked me square in the kidney is all.” She drew his hand to the bump of her abdomen.

Beneath his fingers, Nate felt his child, a new life, rolling and tumbling inside of Alyssa’s belly. He couldn’t help the grin that came to his face at the little jolt of electricity he felt travel up his arm – just the baby saying hello.

“She likes you,” Alyssa said affectionately.

“I think I’m going to like her, too,” Nate replied softly.

Inevitably, his thoughts shifted to Emma Spencer, a woman who’d never had the experience of bearing her own children. From what Jonathan had told Nate, she’d wanted to be a mother more than anything and had never been able to carry a baby to term. Nate had to wonder if she’d ever gotten to this stage, if she’d felt her baby move only to lose it later. It was a heartbreaking thought and he tried to push it as far away as possible.

Without invitation, Alyssa climbed into his lap and put her arms around his shoulders. “Call Uncle Max,” she advised. “Let him help you answer the questions you can’t.”

He thought about it for a long moment, then nodded soberly.

Alyssa laid her head against his and they sat there for a long time, not saying anything, just holding one another. His view to the world was obstructed by her body, but she was looking at the initials carved into the lumber of the tree house.

“What would you be doing now?” she asked.

“What do you mean?”

“If Annie hadn’t been deceptive, if you’d never met me.”

Nate looked at his wife warily, then realized she was asking a question of genuine curiosity; there was no jealousy in her tone or eyes. “I suppose Annie would have graduated college by now. I probably would have never gone – just like now.” He gave an ironic laugh at that. “We’d probably be married. Maybe have a kid or two. It’s hard to say.”

Alyssa smiled in acceptance of his answer, then kissed his forehead. Leaning in, she whispered devilishly against his ear, “I know what else you’d be doing.”

“What’s that?”

“You’d still be wondering what a blow job was like.”

Unable to stop himself, Nate gasped a startled laugh. His wife would forever be inappropriate in some ways.

Later that night, after a quick dinner and another unsuccessful trip to the hospital, Nate stood alone on the pier where he and Jonathan used to fish. Taking Alyssa’s advice, he punched the numbers into his cell phone and waited for an answer. The voice on the other end was soft and calm, as always.

“Max, it’s Nate,” he said shakily.

“Hey, Nate. Is everything okay?”

“Um, no. I need you.” He swallowed. It was so hard to say those three words, to admit that he was lost. “Could you come here, please?”

On the other end of the line, there was no hesitation. “I’ll be there by morning.”

tbc

[Midwest Max]

Part Five

“I’ll have pancakes, sausage, hash browns, white toast, scrambled eggs…and the fruit bowl.” Max Evans smiled at the bemused waitress as he handed the menu to her. Then he winked at his son. “Liz gets irritated with me if I don’t eat at least one healthy thing.”

Nate lifted one eyebrow, sipped from his coffee.

The waitress turned to the younger man. “What would you like, hon?”

Nate shook his head. “Just coffee.” Then his empty stomach twisted in that familiar discomfort and he tightened the arm he had around it. “Better make that some wheat toast. Thanks.”

As the waitress moved away to put in their order, Max eyed his son sympathetically from the other side of the booth.

“Nate, you need to eat,” he chided lightly.

“I am,” Nate mumbled in reply. He was eating enough to keep from passing out and that was about it. In truth, he couldn’t stomach the thought of food – he felt like gagging every time he considered eating. In fact, he was worried that when Max’s massive breakfast arrived his gag reflex wouldn’t be able to take it.

It was still pretty early in the morning, the nighttime dew still on the grass and the sun still muted in the sky. Wanting to keep Max’s arrival from Jonathan for now, Nate had left the bungalow on the ruse that he was out jogging. He’d dressed accordingly and was now shivering in the air conditioned restaurant.

Nate sipped his coffee and watched his father fix his own cup. Max’s appearance was still defying time – save for the small laugh wrinkles that had cropped up around his eyes, he was still very youthful-looking, his body remaining ridiculously fit. Today he looked tired but Nate didn’t have to guess why – the man had traveled all night to be here this day.

For awhile – possibly longer than Nate was willing to admit to himself – he’d wondered if Max’s willingness to drop whatever he was doing and be there for his son was some kind of penance for giving him up for adoption. But it had been almost six years since Nate had arrived in Roswell and Max’s behavior hadn’t changed in the slightest. Either he had one hell of a guilt complex or he genuinely cared about his son.

Nate believed the latter. The call he’d received early that morning had been full of smiles as Max had asked for directions to that café where they’d dined once when he’d visited. Then when Nate had arrived, he’d been met with a solid hug and a look of pure joy. Max Evans loved his boy, regardless if he hadn’t raised him.

Inside, Nate wanted to ask about the conference, about how things were progressing, but this was not the place. He wanted to talk about his quandary with healing Emma, but that wasn’t appropriate talk here either.

“How’s Alyssa?” Max asked, stirring his coffee, giving his son a grin. “And the baby?”

“So far so good,” Nate replied, drawing his forearm a little tighter around his belly, an action Max didn’t miss. “Emily blurted out that it’s a girl the other day.”

Max looked stricken. “She didn’t.”

Nate smiled lightly and nodded. “Yep. I already knew that, but Alyssa…”

“God, Nate, I’m sorry.” Max looked truly remorseful, like he’d just blown someone’s surprise birthday party.

Nate waved him off with a hand. “Not a big deal, Max. Alyssa’s already over it.” His face clouding over, he remembered Emily knowing that Alyssa felt too fat to get ice cream and wanted to ask Max about it. Once again, not a question to be asked in the local diner.

“Everything okay?” Max asked, sipping from his cup.

“Yeah,” Nate assured him. “Something for later.”

Max nodded his understanding, planted his elbow on the table and cupped his chin in his hand. He looked road weary but still alert. “Tell me about your mom,” he said gently.

Nate drew in a breath, his gut flipping again. “It’s not good, Max. She never even woke up yesterday.”

“What are they saying is wrong with her?”

“Something with her bone marrow.” Nate’s brow furrowed. He hadn’t paid attention to the clinical explanation because in terms of healing her, it didn’t matter.

Max sipped his cup silently, looked out of the window for a moment. “What did you think?” he asked without looking at his son.

Nate smiled slightly – Max was assuming that he’d gone looking for symptoms himself, which of course he had. His smile was momentary and slipped away quickly. “I think it’s bad. I think it’s worse than anything I’ve ever come across.”

Max met his gaze, his searching and sympathetic at the same time. Then his eyes drifted over Nate’s shoulder. “Here comes breakfast.”

Nate got a dessert plate of toast – Max’s spread took three plates. They chatted about inconsequential things while they ate. When they were done, Max picked up the tab much to Nate’s protests, then they stepped into the already-muggy August morning.

“Where’s that place you and your dad used to fish?” Max asked with a grin. “Let’s go there.”

Unable to help himself, Nate lifted an eyebrow devilishly. “It’s not far. Want to run with me?”

Max blanched, put his hands over his belly. “Uh, no. Three steps and there’s going to be some disgusting sidewalk art around here.”

Nate snorted a laugh and climbed into Max’s rental car, pointed him in the correct direction. They arrived at the dock in only a few minutes, parked the car, then walked out to the end of the pier. They sat side by side for a few moments in silence, enjoying the morning, then Max looked questioningly at his son. No words were needed.

“I don’t know what to do,” Nate confessed.

Max drew his knees up to his chest, wrapped his arms around them. “You mean about healing her?”

Nate nodded. “I’m not even sure I could.”

“What do you mean?”

He looked down at his hand. “What I felt…it was powerful, Max. Maybe more powerful than me.”

Max glanced down at his son’s hand, frowned slightly. “Nate, if you think it was too powerful for you, then maybe it was. I’ve come across things that I’ve known I couldn’t heal. If I had tried, I knew that it would take me instead.”

“Is that why you didn’t heal Liz’s grandma?”

A flash of something, maybe regret, passed through Max’s eyes. “No, Nate, that wasn’t why.”

“Why, then?” Max shifted slightly and Nate felt as though he’d overstepped his bounds a bit. “I’m sorry, Max. It’s just that I’m really struggling with what’s right here.”

Max put a reassuring hand on his son’s shoulder. “I know. I’m not trying to not talk about that event. It’s just that I know what Liz’s grandma meant to her. I had the ability to keep her alive a little longer and I had to make a judgment call.”

Nate listened silently, got the feeling he wasn’t going to like what he heard.

Max looked like he was searching for the right words. “You’ve got an amazing gift, Nate. A powerful one. But just because you can do these things, doesn’t mean you should.”

“Are you saying I shouldn’t try to save my mom?”

“No,” Max replied calmly. “I’m not saying that. I’m saying you’ve got to decide for yourself what the best action is.”

Nate looked despondently to the water. “But I don’t know how to decide. I don’t know what to do.”

“When Liz’s grandmother had her stroke, Liz and I weren’t on the best of terms. She was still sort of with Kyle and I was trying to distance myself from her. God, I just wanted to hold her and tell her how I felt about her. But I couldn’t. The shooting had only happened less than a month before that and we were still getting to know one another. I was also still a little paranoid about having a relationship with a human. I didn’t want her to get hurt – by me or someone who wanted to hurt me.”

Max paused, squinted into the sun, which had appeared over the tops of the trees. “When she came to my door and asked me to help, it was the hardest thing I had ever done to tell her I couldn’t.”

Nate could empathize with that – he didn’t think there was anything Alyssa would ever ask of him that he could tell her no. “What did you tell her?”

“That I wasn’t God.” Max bit the side of his mouth. “We can’t play God, Nate. Some things are just meant to be. Some things are out of our hands and it’s not up to us to change them.”

Nate swallowed. He’d just let Liz’s grandmother die? Was it possible Max Evans was really that heartless? “You did nothing for her?” There was a tinge of disbelief in his tone.

Max gave him a gentle smile. “No, I helped as much as I could. I eased her pain, I helped her say goodbye to her granddaughter.”

In his head, Nate imagined that scene – two awkward people who barely knew one another but who were bound by accident, one grieving, one only wanting to do all he could to help. He saw Max giving Liz a priceless gift, the ability to say one last goodbye to one she held so dear in her heart. Nate’s eyes watered despite his best efforts to stop them.

Max didn’t say a word, simply put his arm around his son’s shoulders and gave him a gentle squeeze. Nate looked down into his lap, lost in tears for the first time since he’d heard the news about Emma.

“It’s life, Nate,” Max said softly, allowing him to grieve. “We all come. We all go. And it hurts like hell.”

After a few moments, Nate wiped his face with the heels of his hands, wrapped his arms around his aching stomach and drew in a tired breath.

“I can’t tell you what to do,” Max said gently. “You’re going to need to make that decision.”

“If I try to heal her,” Nate said shakily, his voice sounding congested from the crying, “I’ll have to tell her what I am.”

“Yes, there is that to consider. It’s your decision, as always – I will back you up whatever you plan to do.” Max thought for a moment. “Nate, you have to also consider that there are no miracle cures. It sounds like your mom is pretty sick – and a lot of people are aware of that. If she’s all of a sudden well, then you need to have a viable explanation for it.”

Nate hadn’t considered that. That was definitely a stumbling block. But, the fact that Max even brought it up led him to believe that his father had faith that healing her could be done. Why else would he warn Nate about covering his tracks? If nothing else, it was a glimmer of hope.

Max looked a little uneasy. “There’s something else.”

Nate eyed him with worry. “What?”

“You have to consider what your mom would want.”

He withdrew slightly. What she would want? Would she choose to be this sick? Would she choose to be a shell of what she once was?

Max nodded in understanding. “I know what you’re thinking. And maybe you’re right. But you can’t be arrogant enough to assume you know how she feels.”

For one moment, Nate’s patience snapped. “Did you know how Liz Parker felt before you healed her? How did you know that she didn’t want to die? Did you know when Jeremy was born that he also didn’t want to die?”

Max held up his hand patiently. “Those were my decisions, Nate. I had to use my judgment – which unfortunately had to be snap decisions in both instances. You can’t ask me to justify them now.” His expression softened. “Just as I won’t ask you to justify yours. I’m just asking that you consider her wishes first.”

Nate felt a twinge of guilt at having lashed out, hung his head and nodded.

Max patted him on the back. All forgiven. Max always forgave Nate.

Inside the pocket of his shorts, Nate’s cell phone rang. He drew in a quick breath, composed himself and answered it.

“Hi, Dad. Alright. I’ll be right there.” He immediately started to get to his feet.

Max looked at him questioningly.

“My mom’s awake.”

tbc

[Midwest Max]

Part Six

Every one of Nate’s nerves was pulled taut as Max maneuvered the rental car into the parking lot of the small hospital. He’d been gripping the door handle so tightly that his fingers ached and his knuckles were white. As Max pulled into a parking spot, however, Nate’s blue eyes settled on a familiar, welcome sight – Alyssa was on the sidewalk with Jake, who was screaming happily and attempting to flee. Nate broke into a wide grin and when he turned to his father, he saw that Max was also smiling widely as he stepped out of the car.

Upon seeing the new arrivals, Jake stopped dead in his tracks as though he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Then he squealed in delight and ran straight past Nate to Max and held up his arms pleadingly. Alyssa gave her husband an amused, sympathetic look and rubbed his arm as Max swung his grandson into his arms.

“Hey there, tiger,” he said, tickling Jake’s belly. The toddler giggled and squirmed. Max leaned over and kissed Alyssa on the cheek. “Hi, sweetie,” he said.

“Hey, Uncle Max,” she replied. “Looks like Jake’s happy to see you.”

He laughed lightly. “Yeah, apparently.” He bounced the baby a couple of times and gave him a kiss on the head. “I’ve missed my baby, haven’t I?”

Jake chattered in return, jabbing his hand into Max’s shirt pocket in search of treasure.

“How’s Mrs. Spencer?” Max asked, his expression falling serious.

Alyssa glanced apologetically at Nate. “She’s in and out. She’s pretty weak.” She turned to face her husband. “But she wants to see you, Nate. I had to come out here because Jake was getting a little rambunctious. Your dad’s up there as well.”

Nate nodded his head, his eyes drifting upward to the second story windows. He felt a light cuff on his arm and looked to see Max before him.

“We’re right here if you need us,” he said in support.

Nate nodded again and moved for the entrance to the hospital. As the doors slid open, a cool blast of air greeted him and he realized he’d forgotten how muggy it was outside. In the lobby, a few people waited for some kind of news, none of them looking like they wanted to be there. Nate looked to the floor and passed them, waited patiently for the elevator.

The ride to the second floor seemed to take forever and Nate felt the walls closing in around him. He’d never been claustrophobic, but today he felt like his clothes were too tight, the elevator was too small, his ribs wouldn’t let his lungs expand. He felt like he was about to crawl out of his skin. And he knew why – he had a momentous decision to make, one that might change his life and those of the ones around him forever.

Max’s undying and blind faith in Nate’s decisions was astounding. Even given what had happened in that erased time line, Max was still willing to believe his son would make the right move. In truth, it humbled Nate that his father had such confidence in him.

When Nate entered his mother’s room, he saw that she had fallen asleep again and frowned slightly to himself. Her room mate was also resting, so he let the door close quietly behind him. Jonathan rose from the chair beside Emma’s bed, his eyes full of confusion and despair. Nate had never seen him look so lost.

“Hi, Dad,” he whispered. “How is she?”

Jonathan gave a little shrug, shook his head and immediately looked away. Nate knew that having Emma ill was stress enough, but he also knew that his father was fighting to keep the ever-present stoic façade in place. The Spencers weren’t an emotional family on the surface, they never had been.

“Dad,” Nate whispered. “Why don’t you go get some coffee? I’ll stay here with her.”

Jonathan looked back to the bed, unwilling to go.

“Dad, it will be okay.”

With an abrupt nod of his head, Jonathan exited the room, possibly before he could talk himself out of it again.

Nate drew in a long breath and claimed the chair, his eyes falling on his mother’s pale face. She seemed to be resting peacefully now, but then again maybe it was just the medication. He waited a few moments for her to awaken, and when she didn’t he felt discouraged as he sat back in the chair.

It hadn’t been a restful night. There had been too much to think about, with Max’s pending arrival and his mother being ill and Alyssa expecting a new baby. Not to mention the summit Max had left behind, Emily’s freaky comments and unwelcome memories of Annie O’Donnell. In fact, he’d tossed and turned so much that Alyssa had banished him from his old attic bedroom to the couch.

And now he was exhausted, his belly only slightly appeased with the toast he’d eaten at breakfast. Tiredly, he rubbed his eyes, drew in a long breath and yawned. When he opened his eyes, he was startled to find Emma smiling weakly at him. Trying to be as quiet as possible, he drew the chair closer to the bed.

“Hi, Mom,” he said in a hushed tone.

Her smile widened slightly and she reached out to touch a face. “A good boy,” she said, her words thick and tired. “You were always such a good boy.”

Nate felt a tightening at the back of his throat, a stinging in his eyes. “Can I get you anything?”

She shook her head wearily. “I got everything I wanted in life. I got to have a son. I got to have you.”

He swallowed hard.

“I had a good life,” she told him. “I had a wonderful husband, a comfortable home, and a good son.”

A good son who had been lying to her for the last six years. Nate felt a stab of guilt. It was time – tell her now or never tell her. “Mom, why didn’t you tell me you were sick?”

Emma smiled. “I didn’t want to worry you.”

“But maybe something could have been done.”

“No, Nate. Nothing is going to help me now.”

“But maybe I…” He swallowed again, his heart starting to thump into his ribs. “Maybe I could have done something to help.”

She blinked tiredly, her eyes tender. “There’s nothing, sweetie. Nothing you could have done.”

“But what if there was?”

Emma closed her eyes and for a moment Nate was afraid she’d gone out again. When she opened them, she seemed to have lost track of the conversation they were just having. “Take care of your father, Nate.”

“Mom…” Nate fidgeted in his chair. It was too soon for goodbyes.

“He’s a strong man, but he’s going to be alone once I’m gone. Look after him. Promise me that?”

“Mom, don’t talk that way. Maybe there’s a way that we can fight this. Maybe there’s something that hasn’t been tried yet.”

She smiled again, blinked slowly. “We’ve tried everything. This is it. There is nothing left to try.”

Nate looked down at the floor, frustrated and a little angry at the situation.

Emma reached out and touched his hair, prompting him to look at her. “It’s okay, Nate. It’s my time.”

He shook his head vehemently. “Maybe it doesn’t have to be.”

“I know you want things to be different. But they’re not, Nate. This is what it is. I’m dying.” Her voice and expression softened. “I waited for you. So that we could say goodbye.”

Nate was motionless for a few moments, then he hung his head and lost the battle with his tears. He held his head in his hands and stared at the hospital tile without seeing it, his shoulders heaving with his silent sobs.

Then, bolstered with new determination, he lifted his head quickly, wet tracks evident on his cheeks. The woman in the bed next to his mother’s was still asleep, so he turned determined eyes to Emma.

“Mom, you need to know something.”

She lifted an eyebrow curiously.

He gulped once, then forced himself to press on before he chickened out. “I’m not like other people.”

She was silent for a moment, then smiled softly. “I know.”

Nate gave a quick shake of his head. “No, I don’t mean that I have different tastes than other people or that I think differently than others. I mean I’m really not like everyone else.”

She nodded barely perceptibly. “I know, Nate.”

Frustration festered inside of him and he shook his head again. She was being all motherly with him, her “good boy”, and not hearing what he was trying to say to her. “Please, Mom, listen to me. I’m different than you. I’m different than Dad. I’m different than everyone else in Chautauqua. I’m different –” His resolve wavered momentarily, but he urged himself forward. “I’m different because Max is different.”

There was a deafening silence in the room as Nate stared expectantly at the woman who had raised him. Her eyes showed no signs of disbelief or disgust or really anything at all. Deflated, he figured it had to be the drugs – she was too whacked out to understand what he was telling her. Just as he was about to excuse himself to get some air, she reached out and touched his face.

“I know, Nate,” she repeated.

He started to pull away, having lost the battle, but she took him by the arm.

“I know what you are.”

The air rushed out of Nate’s lungs as he sank back to the seat. He no longer felt determined or angry or frustrated. He felt exposed and vulnerable; the warm heat of panic rushed across his skin and made it prickle.

“You know,” he breathed.

Emma retracted her arm and nodded.

“Mom…how?”

She smiled at him again. “A mother just knows, Nate. You were hardly a normal child.”

He wasn’t? He tried to reach back into his memory and find evidence of doing things out of the ordinary, but he could come up with nothing.

“Oh, it wasn’t anything you did,” she continued. “Like you said, you were just different.” She shifted her diminished weight uneasily, grimaced slightly. “Then there was all of the secrecy around your adoption. And to find out you came from Roswell, of all places.” Emma laughed, her voice hoarse, and coughed as punctuation.

“Mom,” Nate said, his voice tentative. “Do you know that I’m an al-”

She stopped him with a finger to his lips. “I know you’re my son. And that’s all that matters.” She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, tired out from their conversation.

Nate stared helplessly at her, his mind whirring in many directions. How long had she known? Did Jonathan know?

“Mom?” he whispered.

She cracked her eyes open.

“I can…I can do things,” he announced. “I might be able to help you.”

She looked slightly intrigued. “How?”

“Maybe I can heal you, or just make you better.”

Emma’s blue eyes showed a small spark that extinguished quickly. Wordless, she shook her head.

Nate’s mouth dropped open in disbelief. “Mom, did you hear what I said? I might be able to make you well again?”

She sighed lightly. “To what end, Nate? I’m old now. Even if you could help me, I can’t live forever.”

“But –”

She silenced him again with a finger to his lips. She smiled at him as she touched his dark hair, caressed his cheek. “I love you, Nathan. More than you can imagine. I know that you think this would be best, but it’s time. I’m old. I’m tired. I don’t want to do this again. It’s time to let me go.”

tbc

[Midwest Max]

Part Seven

Within the next three days, Emma would succumb to her illness and Nate would break a promise.

The first day, Emma remained coherent and conscious enough that she and her adopted son spent hours talking, just being with one another, saying goodbye. Max came to her room and she thanked him for giving Nate to her all of those years before. Nate let him know that Emma was in on the secret by her own accord and when Max acted surprised she’d explained that she’d had many indicators along the way. For instance, she’d seen the way Max had reacted to his son – he didn’t act like a man who wanted to be rid of an accidental child. He acted like a man who was relieved his son was okay and overjoyed that they’d been reunited. From that, she’d deduced that Max was tucking Nate away for safe keeping rather than abandoning him. There was a whole list of examples, she’d explained, too many to waste precious time on. But she knew and she was okay with it.

As for Jonathan, Emma had tried to explain her theory to him, but he was not a man who believed in the paranormal. He hadn’t said much other than he guessed anything was possible and never brought it up again. Emma laughed lightly and said that she thought on that day he was close to having her committed.

Nate was grateful to have those few hours with her, to let her know that Alyssa was carrying a granddaughter. At that news, Emma’s blue eyes teared up and he could nearly read her thoughts – she was thinking of everything she would miss with that baby girl, a child she would never even get to see. But she held her resolve in place when Nate asked her one more time if she’d like him to attempt to help her.

In order to man the Spencers’ store so Jonathan could be with his wife, Michael Guerin left behind his wife and Jeremy Ramirez abandoned his centerfold-worthy girlfriend. Since remarrying, Michael and Maria had found that the secret to a successful marriage was not spending too much time in the same city and he was due for a separation. Jeremy came because he remembered a sweet woman who was kind to him while he’d been loaned out as an indentured servant in an Isabel-imposed punishment for sleeping with the maid’s daughter. Though he wasn’t paid for his efforts that summer so long ago, Jeremy had been more than adequately compensated in hospitality and kindness by Emma Spencer and he wanted to do something to help.

On the second day, Emma took a turn for the worse. She was racked with pain until she finally became delirious. As the hallucinations set in, Nate couldn’t bear to see her suffering in such a way. It was then that he used a power he promised he never would.

As Emma slipped farther into madness, her adopted son silently entered her mind and made her forget all of the pain she was feeling. Instead, he took her to a place where there was no pain, to an afternoon picnic by the Lake on a sunny New York spring day. He brought along her husband of so many years, the caring though stoic Jonathan. He brought along himself and Alyssa. And he showed her Jake, her grandson, and conjured up an image of the baby girl that was yet to be born, a child with blond hair and blue eyes just as Emily Evans had predicted.

Calmed and relieved from the hallucinations that were assaulting her mind, Emma Spencer slid quietly into a coma.

With her husband and son by her side, she passed away on the third day.

The funeral several days later was immense – the Spencers had been store owners in the area for their entire married lives and knew most of the community. The only funeral Nate had ever seen of its size was the one for Joe Wallace, the kindly old jeweler who had sold Nate the emerald necklace Alyssa still wore. In fact, the sheer volume of mourners was a little panic-inducing. So many faces, so many people that Nate didn’t know; he knew that Aubrey was working overtime looking for threats.

But among the many unfamiliar faces, there were extremely welcome ones – the Evanses, all of the way from Roswell. Maria Guerin, in disguise with dark red hair, giving her understudy a chance at fame as she abandoned her play for a couple of nights. The Ramirezes, whom Nate was particularly happy to see since Isabel brought with her the dark suit he’d optimistically left behind. In a way, he was relieved that only Jesse and Isabel had come, leaving the twins behind – he didn’t know if he had the fortitude to deal with their space oddity while dealing with death as well. And, of course, there was Liz and little Emily.

Some of the residents of Chautauqua looked at Nate’s extended family with curiosity. It was just blatantly obvious that they didn’t really fit in.

After the ceremony, the local church invited everyone back to the community hall for late lunch. Nate went for a few minutes, but found the crowd suffocating and the smell of the food nauseating. He let Alyssa know he needed to get some air, looked away when she looked at him in concern, then walked down to the pier again. He would have preferred the solitude of his tree house, but climbing the ladder in a suit and tie seemed impractical.

A cold front had moved through and the air had a definite nip to it – autumn was on its way. Sighing, Nate sat down at the end of the dock, his shoulders sagging wearily. Every muscle ached – had it been days since he’d slept? His stomach clenched and he wrapped his arm around his abdomen, winced slightly.

“Aubrey,” he said softly.

As expected, the protector appeared next to him, appropriately clad in a dark suit. Then again, she always wore a dark suit. Nate wasn’t sure if she understood all that had gone on that day – after all, when one of her kind died they simple disintegrated into dust. No need for a funeral there. He wondered if she was curious about all of the ceremony.

“Sir,” she said.

Reaching into his jacket, Nate pulled out a small, oblong box and handed it to her. “I was waiting for our anniversary, but I decided to give this to you now.”

She looked momentarily confused. “Anniversary?”

He gave her a small smile. “Pretty soon, you and I will have been together for five years.” Aubrey still looked puzzled, so Nate waved her off with a hand – apparently she didn’t get the concept of anniversaries, either. “Never mind. Just consider it a gift.”

She looked down at the box. “Thank you, sir.”

After she stared at it for several long moments, Nate said, “Open it.” He wasn’t sure if she thought the box was the gift…

Aubrey popped open the lid and Nate thought he saw something resembling a smile. She pulled out the new Ray-Bans and put them on, stuffed the box into her pocket. It did his heart a little bit of good to see her looking around through her new glasses, obsessed as she was with anything that carried a designer label.

They sat in silence for a few minutes; Nate knew if there was any talking to be done, he would have to initiate the conversation. Aubrey never talked just to talk.

“I was wondering,” he finally said, “how your people deal with death.”

She looked at him for a moment, blinked, then asked, “In what manner?”

“I mean, do you believe there’s an afterlife?”

“An afterlife, sir?”

Nate scratched his head. He wasn’t a particularly religious person, but now that Emma had left this earth, he wanted to believe that she’d gone somewhere else, someplace better. “When you die, where does your spirit go?”

Aubrey remained still, looking at him without a clue.

“Your soul,” he clarified.

“I don’t think we have souls, sir.”

He gave a little laugh. “Oh, I think you do, Aubrey.” Without a soul, she would be one ruthless, dangerous creature. But she wasn’t – Nate believed under her Vulcan-like exterior, Aubrey was a compassionate, caring person. In her own way.

Nate’s moment of levity drifted away as he stared off over the lake. There was no point in talking spirituality with Aubrey – he wasn’t going to get any answers from her. Maybe no one had the answers. Maybe no one knew what had become of the only mother he had ever known.

“I think Emily knew,” he said softly, without really thinking about his words.

“Sir?” Aubrey asked, jolting him back to the present.

“My sister,” he explained. “A week or so ago she told me she was afraid of being alone. I think maybe she saw this coming, that she knew Mom was going to die and she was thinking about what it would be like to lose a parent.” He thought for a moment, gave a shrug. “Or maybe she just saw death and she equated dying to being alone.” He frowned – maybe Emily was the one with all of the answers, but he sure hoped not. If she was, then that meant death was a lonely, empty place.

“It’s possible, sir,” Aubrey agreed to Nate’s surprise – she wasn’t one to speculate normally. “She’s very gifted.”

Yes, she was. In ways that maybe none of them understood. Maybe it was possible that as the hybrids bred with others, their traits were strengthened instead of diluted. Maybe Nate’s grandchildren would be even more alien than he was.

There was a slight whooshing noise and Aubrey abruptly disappeared. Nate looked over his shoulder and could just make out a form coming out of the trees toward the pier; Aubrey had obviously gone into surveillance mode. Her actions were for not, however, as the person approaching was Max.

Nate watched silently as his father sat down beside him, taking Aubrey’s spot. Max let out a tired sigh and stretched his back.

“Long day, huh?” he said.

Nate nodded.

“I wondered where you went. I figured you had to be here or the tree house.”

Nate smiled with one corner of his mouth – Max could read him like a book.

“People were starting to wonder what had become of you.”

There was a stab of guilt in Nate’s midsection. “Is everyone gone now?”

“For the most part.”

That wasn’t a bad thing. Too many people, all at once, all wanting to bestow condolences when all Nate really wanted was for someone to not do those things. Those people all said they understood how he felt, but they didn’t.

“How’s my dad?” he asked Max.

“Holding it together. Jesse and Isabel took him home.”

Nate nodded. “Good.” He looked down at his hands. There was something he needed to get off his chest. “Max, I have to tell you something.”

Max’s dark eyes were concerned but still receptive. “Okay.”

How to say this? How was Max going to react? Nate drew in a deep breath, continued to look at his fingers. “I, um, I mindwarped my mom, Max.”

There was one split second when Max looked stricken, but it dissolved quickly and he said nothing.

“She was in so much pain,” Nate said, chewing on his bottom lip. “She didn’t even know who we were anymore and I…” He swallowed hard. “I couldn’t let her suffer.” He raised his head so that he could meet his father’s eyes. “I broke a promise to Liz. I’m sorry, Max.”

Max’s expression softened and he reached over and hugged his son firmly. “It’s okay, Nate,” he said softly. “She’ll understand.”

Nate’s one last thread of composure was threatened by his father’s forgiveness, so he quickly pushed away, swallowed down his urge to cry.

“You’re gonna be okay,” Max said, his tone confident. “I know you will be.”

Nate nodded weakly, then got to his feet. “Can you give me and Aubrey a ride home?”

“Of course I can.”

By the time Nate returned to the bungalow, it was dark outside and the house was silent. The only light that was on was the lamp by the front door – the same light Emma used to leave on when he went out with his friends. As he stood in the entranceway, Nate could almost feel the emptiness in the home – something was just missing. He remembered coming home from school as a child and smelling dinner cooking as soon as he hit the front door. Or sometimes there would be the smell of Emma’s famous chocolate chunk cookies. Nate realized he’d never have them again and tried to remember the last batch she’d made him. If he’d known that it would be the last one, he would have relished them more than he had.

Trying to be quiet, he climbed the stairs to his attic bedroom. The door pushed open with a slight squeak of the hinges, but nothing so loud as to awake his family. Alyssa was asleep on her side; at the foot of the bed, Jake snored lightly in his travel crib.

Making as little noise as possible, Nate slid out of his suit and climbed into bed with his wife. As soon as he pulled the blankets up to his shoulder, she rolled over so that she was facing him. There was so much love and compassion in her eyes that the one last thread of Nate’s composure snapped.

In the dark, in his wife’s arms, Nate grieved silently for the loss of his mother.

tbc

[Midwest Max]

Part Eight

In the week following Emma’s death, Max returned to the conference he’d left behind, Michael and Maria Guerin returned to New York, and Jeremy and Jesse Ramirez returned to Boston. Liz and Isabel stayed behind to help with things that neither Jonathan nor Nate wanted to do – which included cleaning out Emma’s closets and dressers.

Nate helped his father in the store, forever grateful that his new family was there to help. He watched in awe as the lovely Isabel charmed his father out of his doldrums, sometimes with only a smile or a laugh. Within a few days of the funeral, Jonathan was taking interest in things again, running his business like he always had, taking walks down to the pier to check out how the fish were biting. Nate knew that he had his aunt to thank for that and only hoped that once she was gone, Jonathan wouldn’t slip back into depression.

Nate and his adoptive father never talked about the knowledge that Emma held, that their son was not quite of this earth. Still, on some level Nate felt like Jonathan did know and was still accepting of him. That belief brought with it a little bit of relief in that Nate wasn’t so worried about slipping up anymore. Surely if Jonathan had wanted to turn them all over to the FBI, he would have done so by now.

From Nate’s conversations with his mother, he got the impression that she had guessed a long time ago what he was – perhaps before Nate was even in grade school. Certain things now made sense. What Nate had taken for jealousy or fear of losing a child may have been something much different. He couldn’t forget Emma’s anxiety at knowing Max was coming to visit for the first time, or her fear as Nate had left for Roswell and Alyssa’s high school graduation. At the time, he’d thought that perhaps she was afraid that Nate would leave them, that he didn’t appreciate what the Spencers had done for him. But maybe that wasn’t it at all. Maybe Emma understood that there were people in the world who wanted to harm someone who wasn’t entirely human. Maybe she’d feared for his life rather than his abandoning them.

Nate didn’t want to abandon Jonathan now that he was alone, so he tried on many occasions to talk the man into coming to live on the coast with them. The end result was always the same – Jonathan was a New York native, had lived in the same small town his entire life and he simply wouldn’t feel at home anywhere else.

As Nate took inventory in the store room of his father’s shop, he was happy to see that the store was still in good standing – the amount of back stock was just right. Too little and he would have feared that the Spencers hadn’t the capital to properly stock. Too much would have been a sign that business was poor. But with the last holiday weekend of the summer approaching, the amount of merchandise seemed just right.

Jonathan entered the store room and retrieved a bale of bags for the register.

“Dad,” Nate said, looking up from his clipboard.

Jonathan stopped at the door and waited patiently. Nate wanted to ask him what he was planning on doing with the store. After all, Jonathan was approaching seventy and couldn’t work for the rest of his life. Would he sell the business? Did he expect that Nate might want to inherit it? Nate wanted to ask those questions, but found that he couldn’t. The timing was wrong – there had been enough changes in their lives in the last few weeks.

“Things look good,” Nate said with a smile, tapping the clipboard with his pen.

Jonathan grunted and shook his head, though there was a small smile on his lips as he left the room. Nate smiled in return – of course things looked good. Jonathan Spencer had been doing this job for nearly fifty years and he didn’t need some kid telling him he knew what he was doing. Nate was sure his concocted cover had brought great amusement to his father.

“Daa-eee!” came a shriek from the door.

Nate looked up and saw Jake stumbling for him, giggling the whole way. He put down the clipboard and swept the baby into his arms.

“What’s this?” he asked. “Now you’re happy to see me? Just because grandpa isn’t around?”

The child laughed and threw his arms around Nate’s neck.

A few seconds later, Alyssa came through the door, holding her back with one hand and grimacing. “I’m starting to not be able to keep up with him,” she sighed.

Nate gave her a sympathetic look, then a kiss on the cheek. “Want me to keep him here with me today?”

She snorted. “He’d be like a bull in a China shop. I already had to save him from diving head-first into the minnow vat.”

Nate laughed lightly and bounced his son. Inside, he felt a tug of pride when he looked at this perfect little being, so like him but also very unique. He couldn’t imagine how hard it must have been for Max to give up his son once he’d held him for the first time. Nate remembered being at the hospital and holding Jake only minutes after he’d been born, and in that instant, he knew that he would kill anyone who tried to come between them. The ferocity of that thought still troubled him to this day.

“What are you up to?” Nate asked, taking a seat on a stack of cases of canned goods and shifting Jake to his lap.

“We’re saying goodbye to Emily and Aunt Liz,” Alyssa said, following his lead and sitting on a bale of pet food bags. She groaned in relief as the extra weight was lifted from her feet.

“That’s right, they’re leaving today,” Nate said. Soon, Isabel would leave as well. Then Jake and Alyssa. Nate had agreed to stay on for a month or so.

“Yeah, so we’re going out for ice cream,” Alyssa explained.

“Ay ream!” Jake blurted happily.

Nate laughed lightly. He hoped some day Jake learned to say consonants, but right now his speech impediment was pretty funny. “Well, I guess he’s happy about that,” he said to Alyssa.

“It’s his favorite,” she agreed. “They’re supposed to meet us here and then we’re going to walk down to that little place up the street.” At the thought of walking, she winced.

Nate frowned slightly, then rose to his feet and crossed over to her. Placing Jake in her lap, he knelt down before her and slid off one of her sandals.

“What are you doing?” she laughed.

He simply smiled at her as he caressed her foot, an icy coolness emanating from his hands. The slight swelling there abated and a few moments later she sighed in relief. He grinned in satisfaction, then picked up her other foot and did the same.

Alyssa kissed Jake’s head and whispered in his ear, “Daddy’s really good with his hands.”

The child looked at her curiously, then started lightly tapping on her round belly. In response, the baby inside of her kicked.

“Ouch!” Alyssa said and Jake laughed. “Dammit – they’re already ganging up on me!”

“Ammit!” Jake repeated with a laugh.

Nate rolled his eyes as he got to his feet. “Nice, Mommy.”

“Oops,” she said, shrugging sheepishly. “When will you be home tonight?”

“In time for dinner.”

“Good. Aunt Isabel is making something special tonight. Don’t ask me what – she wouldn’t tell.”

Nate nodded. “That’s nice. We can all be together for dinner.” He liked that his father didn’t have to be alone all the time. And he gave credit to his friends and family – they had been just enough company without being overbearing. He would be eternally grateful to them.

“Maybe they’re back here,” Liz said from outside of the store room. Shortly, she entered, leading Emily by the hand.

“There’s my Emily!” Nate said.

But Emily didn’t respond. She was staring at the floor, her bottom lip pushed out in a pout. Nate looked quickly to Liz, thinking perhaps she’d reprimanded her daughter recently, but Liz simply shook her head.

“What’s with the sour puss?” Nate asked, squatting before his little sitter. She seemed so tiny standing there, holding onto her mother’s hand.

“I don’t want to go to the airport,” she said, staring at the floor.

Nate’s brow furrowed. Emily hadn’t been afraid of the flight to New York so her new paranoia was puzzling.

“I thought you liked the big airplane,” he said.

“I don’t want to leave you,” she said.

There was a tug at Nate’s heart strings and he reached out and put his arms around her. “Oh, sweetie, I’ll be home before you know it. And I’ll call you every night until then. How’s that?”

She pushed back from him, her dark eyes misty. “I might never see you again.” She said the words with such conviction that Nate felt a slight flare of panic in his stomach.

“Of course you will,” he said soothingly. “I’m going to come home once I’m done helping my dad here. Then you’ll see me. And we’ll do something special, just you and me, okay?”

Emily continued to look sullen. At a loss, Nate looked back up to Liz, who was watching him sympathetically.

“I might never see Daddy again,” Emily said in a near whisper.

“You know Daddy will also be home soon,” Liz corrected her. “He promised and Daddy always keeps his promises.”

Emily tipped her head back in order to look up at her mother. “I know.”

Nate felt a shiver run down his spine. Once again, his little sister was throwing off the heebie-jeebie vibes.

“I bet some ice cream would make you feel better,” Alyssa said, sliding off the stack of dog food.

Emily’s little face brightened immediately.

“Ay ream!” Jake squawked.

Alyssa laughed. “See? It’s going to make Jake feel better, too.”

Nate said goodbye to Liz and Emily as they were leaving for the airport early that afternoon and he wouldn’t see them again until he returned to Boston. As the group left for the ice cream parlor, Emily looked over her shoulder and gave him one last soulful look. In her eyes, he saw something beyond her years and it troubled him immensely.

The rest of the afternoon at the store was uneventful, though Emily’s unusual behavior didn’t drifted far from Nate’s mind. He was going to need to speak to Max about what he’d heard from Emily of late. It was possible she was blossoming into some power that they’d yet to encounter.

A local kid Jonathan had hired as summer help showed up at the store for his shift around five o’clock. After going over a brief list of duties for him for the evening, Nate and Jonathan returned to the bungalow, to the dinner Isabel had prepared for them. In light of the weird mood left by Emily, the dinner was relatively light-spirited, the food was good and Nate was once again thankful to have his aunt there.

In bed that night, Nate cradled his wife against him, his hand splayed over her belly. Against his palm, there were tiny kicks and punches, but nothing that would make Alyssa uncomfortable – just the baby playing before bed.

“We should pick a name for her,” Nate said quietly, trying not to awaken Jake.

Alyssa nodded. “Yeah, we should, but we’ve got four months left.”

“So, you don’t have any ideas?” he laughed.

She shook her head. “Not a one. You? Do you want to name her after your mom?”

It was too soon to think about that. Nate frowned sadly and gave a shrug. “I don’t know.”

“Think about it for awhile. There’s time.” Alyssa kissed him lightly.

They lay silently for a long time, listening to Jake’s light breathing from the end of the bed. Nate felt himself getting sleepy, his eyelids drooping.

A shrill noise jerked him fully awake and he grabbed for his jeans on the floor in order to silence his cell phone. Glancing toward the end of the bed, he made sure Jake was still sleeping as he popped the phone open.

“Hello?” he whispered.

“Nate?” It was Jesse Ramirez.

A warning claxon went off in Nate’s head. “Yeah, Jesse, what’s up?”

“We need to find Max. Can you get a hold of him?”

“Sure. What’s wrong?”

Alyssa sat up, her dark eyes round and worried. Nate reached down and picked up her hand.

“It’s Liz and Emily,” Jesse explained. “They never got on the plane.”

tbc

[Midwest Max]

Wow - I threw so many of you off with Emily's little prediction Thanks for the fb, don't have time to answer it now, but here's a new part


Part Nine

At the edge of the bed, Nate rocked back and forth, doubled over, his arms wrapped around his stomach. Jesse’s voice was still ringing in his ears – calm, the confident litigator, delivering unbelievable news.

“Nate,” Alyssa said, taking hold of her husband’s shoulder.

“I did this,” he choked out.

“You did what? You didn’t do anything, Nate.”

“I didn’t listen to her,” he confessed. In his mind, he immediately saw Emily’s little face, a sad sense of defeat in her dark eyes. She’d known something bad was going to happen - and she’d known it was going to happen to her, not to Nate or Max as Nate had suspected.

She’d known he wasn’t going to help her.

“Stop blaming yourself,” Alyssa said bluntly. “Get it together, Nate – now’s not the time to fall apart.”

“I sent her away,” he whispered in agony. “I figured she was just being a kid, just blabbing out stuff like she always does. But not this time…I let her down.”

“Jesus Christ,” Alyssa groaned, climbing off the bed, cradling the bulk of her belly under one arm. Padding around to his side of the bed, she grabbed him by the hair and jerked his head up.

“Ow!” Nate cried.

“Stop being such a goddamned martyr and call Max. Sitting here is getting us nowhere. I’m going to wake Aunt Isabel.”

Nate freed a hand from his belly to rub his sore scalp as he watched Alyssa waddle out of the bedroom door. His cell phone was still gripped in one of his hands, and he looked down at it in dread. The blue display window indicated that it was 2:26 in the morning. Before he let himself predict how Max was going to react, before he let himself ball into an emotional mess again, he hit the number to speed dial his father.

Surprisingly, Max answered on the second ring, and he sounded wide awake. “Hey, Nate,” he said cheerfully. “You’re up late.”

“So are you,” Nate replied, trying to sound like he’d been up forever, like there was nothing wrong.

“Ut oh. You don’t sound too happy. The wife banish you to the couch again?” His laugh was genuine and it twisted a knife in Nate’s gut.

“Max, I need you to leave the conference again. I’m sorry, but it really can’t be helped this time.”

“I’ve already left it,” Max said, the chipper tone somewhat diluted. “It ended earlier this afternoon. I’m on my way to Boston…” There was a heavy pause. “Nate, what happened?”

Nate drew in a deep breath, swallowed down the urge to vomit. “I got a call from Jesse, Max.”

“What happened?” Cheerfulness was now replaced with strain and just a touch of panic.

Nate squeezed his eyes shut. “Liz and Emily weren’t on the plane to Boston.” He grimaced, waiting for something from the other end of the line, but he heard nothing. Opening his eyes, he whispered, “Max?”

“I’m on my way there,” he said, his voice harder than Nate had ever heard it. “I’ll be there in about six hours.”

“Okay, what should I –”

The phone went dead abruptly and Nate pulled it away from his ear to look at it quizzically. He couldn’t read Max’s voice. Did he know somehow that Nate could have prevented this whole mess and he was angry about it? Did he already somehow know where they were? Or was he beside the road vomiting like Nate would have been?

The soft padding of footsteps and a rustle of fabric caused Nate to snap the phone shut and look toward the door. Alyssa and Isabel were both entering, Isabel’s eyes sleepy but still wide.

“Jesse called me right as Alyssa was waking me up,” she explained.

“I just talked to Max,” Nate said, swallowing hard. “He’s on his way.”

“We can’t wait for him,” Isabel said. “Get dressed.”

“Where are we going?” Alyssa asked.

“To the airport in Buffalo.”

“Max is coming here,” Nate clarified. “I don’t think we should be flying anywhere.”

“We’re not going to. Just get dressed. Be quiet. Meet me outside.”

Nate was on his feet and pulling on his clothes before his aunt had left the room. After a few moments of fumbling for his shirt, he realized that Alyssa hadn’t moved – she was standing at the foot of the bed staring into Jake’s travel crib. Fear tore through Nate’s whole being, a fear that the cradle was empty, that something had stolen his baby as well as Max’s.

But then Alyssa reached into the crib and pulled out her sleeping son, her need for immediate action abated and the weight of the situation finally settling in. Her eyes moist, she cradled the boy to her chest, rocked him gently when he whimpered softly.

Nate bit his lip, telling himself to stay strong, then pulled his T-shirt over his head. Reaching over, he touched Alyssa’s arm lightly.

“You stay here,” he said gently. “You keep our babies safe, okay?”

For once, she didn’t argue, simply nodded her head and kissed Jake’s dark hair. Nate encircled them both in his arms and kissed Alyssa firmly on the lips.

“We’ll find them,” he promised, his nerves settling into determination. “I promise you.”

Alyssa nodded again, then looked toward the window when she heard the engine of Isabel’s rental car. “You’d better go – Aunt Isabel isn’t patient in situations like this.”

Nate gave her one final kiss, then slowly, quietly made his way down the steps. Once he reached the outdoors, however, he was running full speed for the car. As soon as his butt was in his seat and before the door was closed, Isabel threw the car into reverse and backed quickly out of the drive. Only once they were on the road did she turn on the lights.

“It’s going to be okay, Nate,” she said as she drove, her dark eyes seeing things in the darkness that normal humans couldn’t. Nate got the feeling she was giving herself the pep talk rather than trying to comfort him. “We’ll figure out what happened.”

“Of course we will,” he agreed, almost believing it himself. “Why are we going to the airport?”

She glanced at him. “To see if Liz returned her rental car. If she did, then they made it to the airport but missed the flight. If she didn’t, then they were lost somewhere between here and there.”

Lost.

Nate’s gaze drifted out the side window. Rural New York was vast and if Liz never made it to the airport, there was no telling where she and Emily could be. Couple that with the fact that the flight had left eight hours prior and that was plenty of time for someone to get her to an entirely different state.

“Any chance they got on the plane but were lost in Boston?” Nate asked.

Isabel shook her head. “When they didn’t get off the flight, Jesse checked at the desk and they confirmed they never boarded.”

Nate felt a pang of fear and forced it away. Instead, he thought about a conversation he’d had with Liz the day after his mother had died. Of course, he’d been trying to keep himself busy with every menial task he could find and she’d found him splitting firewood behind the bungalow.

“Looks like hard work,” she’d said. “I brought you something.”

It was a glass of lemonade, chilled to the brim with ice and nothing had ever tasted so wonderful to him. He’d thanked her after downing it in one chug, then commenced splitting more logs.

“I, um, wanted to tell you something,” she’d said, looking bashfully at her feet. That act alone had caused him to let the axe hang limply in his hand and hear her out.

“What’s going on?”

“Oh, there’s nothing going on,” she’d replied, fear that she’d upset him evident in her eyes. “I just wanted to tell you how sorry I am about your mom. She was special.”

“Thanks, Liz.”

“And that…” She’d kicked at the ground with the toe of her sandal. “I mean, I know I’m not your real mom or even your adoptive mom, but if…if you ever need someone just to talk to, um, you know I’m here. Right?”

She’d looked so hopeful at that moment, so wanting to be a supportive figure in his life that he’d simply smiled and nodded his head. He knew what she was saying – she would be his mother if he ever needed one.

That’s the kind of giving soul Liz had. She didn’t force her support or affection on him, but he knew she was there if he needed her. And now it was time that he was there for her.

The bright lights of the airport parking lot caused Nate to squint. Isabel circled until she found the Avis building, then pulled the car into a spot. Looking into the rearview, she checked her hair.

“Act calm,” she advised her nephew. “Let me do the talking.”

“Okay,” he said, waiting until she was done in the mirror before exiting the car.

Together, they walked briskly but casually across the parking lot and into the Avis building. Nate was astounded as his aunt lost any semblance of anxiety and broke into a wide, disarming smile. The man behind the desk nearly drooled at the sight of her. Nate was impressed – mid-forties and still able to knock them off their feet.

“Excuse me,” she said. “I was wondering if you could help me.” With that, she leaned on the counter, pitched slightly forward so that she was even closer to the clerk.

“Of course,” he stammered.

“My sister returned a car here today and I think I may have left my favorite pair of sunglasses in it.” At this point, she cocked her head flirtatiously to the side. “Do you think you could take a peek and see if the car is still here?”

The man grinned and immediately started hitting keys on the computer. “What’s her name?”

“Elizabeth Evans.”

While the man worked, Isabel winked conspiratorially over her shoulder at Nate. He imagined that back in high school, Isabel Evans must have had a carpet of lovesick boys at her feet.

“It’s not here,” the man said.

Dread filled Nate’s bones. They’d never made it to the airport.

“No?” Isabel pouted.

The man shook his head. “No, it was rented out at eight this evening.”

Relief replaced dread and it was all Nate could do to keep from letting it show. Now at least they had a starting place. Then again, they’d disappeared in an airport, meaning they could have easily been whisked onto a flight not of their choosing. Relief was fleeting.

“Oh, I don’t suppose anyone turned my glasses in?” Isabel asked hopefully, still playing the rouse.

The man dug around under the counter. “No…doesn’t look like it.” Then he beamed at her. “If you wanted to give me your phone number, I’ll call you if someone does.”

“No, it’s okay,” she said dejectedly, ignoring the obvious pass.

“It’s okay, sweetheart,” Nate said, putting his arm around her waist to deter any more advances. “I’ll buy you another pair.”

As he turned to lead them out of the office, he snuck one look at the man’s face and saw that he was dumbfounded that this middle-aged woman had snared such a young buck. It would have been funny.

If not for the fact that nothing about this night was funny.

tbc

[Midwest Max]

Part Ten

Isabel and Nate stood helplessly beside the rental car. Neither of them said a word, though the expressions on their faces spoke volumes. Liz had been here and had returned her car in good enough condition that the rental agency had sent it back out again.

“Maybe they missed their flight,” Nate offered.

Isabel looked at him warily.

“I mean, how do we know that they’re not in the terminal waiting for another flight to Boston?”

She cocked her head slightly to the side – it wasn’t out of the question but still unlikely. “Because I think Liz would have called someone to let them know they were late – especially Jesse since he was going to pick them up.”

“But what if her cell was dead?”

“They have payphones, Nate.”

“What if they were out of order?”

Isabel gave a little sigh and frowned slightly. Her nephew was grasping at straws. But he also looked so hopeful that she couldn’t deny him. “Okay. Let’s go inside and see if we can find them.”

Together, they entered the small terminal and started checking the gates first. Maybe the next flight they could get wasn’t due out until the morning and Liz and Emily had to camp out for the night. It was the wee hours of the morning and the place was empty, however, save for a few maintenance men and security. It took Nate and Isabel nearly an hour to walk each concourse and check each gate, with no sign of Liz or Emily.

Next, they searched the bathrooms, Isabel checking the ladies’ while Nate looked for discarded belongings in the mens’. Again, there was nothing. Turning on the charm, Isabel stopped a few security people and asked them if they remembered seeing Liz and Emily and no one did.

Despondent, they returned to the rental car and headed for home. The sky had just started to lighten with the onset of daylight. Nate slid down in the passenger seat, rested his elbow on the door and held his face in his hand.

“At least now we have something to go on,” Isabel said from the driver’s seat, though some of the confidence was now gone from her tone. “We know that whatever happened to them happened after they reached the airport. That’s a starting point, right?”

Nate lowered his hand and watched the landscape whiz past his window. It hadn’t occurred to him until now that no one had even considered that Liz and Emily’s disappearance was a result of anything but foul play. None of them had worried that the car had broken down beside the road or that there had been an accident of some kind. The immediate reaction was to assume intervention of the most horrible kind.

The problem was, the first reaction seemed to be the most accurate.

When Emily had first been born, she’d been struggling for life and had reached out for something to hold onto. That something had been her big brother Nate. If he tried hard enough, he could still feel her being wrapping around him desperately, clinging to this world, wanting to live. For a long time, before Emily could walk or talk, they’d shared a special little bond. One touch from Nate could calm her. One word from his mouth could send her into an excited frenzy, knowing her champion was near. And now Nate had to wonder if somehow that connection still existed.

Closing his eyes, he tried to envelope himself in his memories of Emily’s birth, of the way she felt as she came and went from his mind. He embraced the sensation, silently asking his sister to help them find her. She was out there somewhere and he hoped her mind was still open and receptive to his.

Like a cool breeze, a ghostly chill on a Halloween night, a word drifted across Nate’s brain, making the hairs on his arms stand up.

Zan…

Nate snapped his eyes open and was surprised to see that he had his fists clenched in concentration. For a long moment, he couldn’t comprehend anything his aunt was saying – he could see her mouth moving but couldn’t discern a word. Then he gave a shake of his head and tried to clear the cobwebs.

“I have to warn you about Max,” Isabel was saying, checking her rearview mirror.

“What about Max?” Nate asked, his voice sounding foreign to his ears and his world a little confused. That voice he’d heard in his head had been a woman’s voice…but it hadn’t been Emily’s.

“You’ve never seen how he gets,” Isabel said almost apologetically. “My brother’s a lover, he really is. But, mess with his family…”

Nate raised an eyebrow. Odd that Isabel would be giving this speech about Max when she herself was damn good at pulling out the stops when it came to defending her own. Abducting Annie O’Donnell and dragging her into the desert came to mind.

“What do you mean?” he questioned.

Isabel glanced at him. “You didn’t see him when you were with the FBI. He becomes a little…um, enraged.”

Inappropriately, Nate wanted to giggle, the reason being that Max Evans was the last person he could ever see becoming enraged. Not sweet, gentle, kind Max. “You’re joking, right?”

“Not even a little.”

Nate blinked. “I’ve never seen him angry.”

“Well, it doesn’t happen very often,” Isabel explained, pulling the car into the drive at the Spencer home. “Only when someone snatches one of his kids – or his wife.”

Nate wasn’t sure what to say as the visual of Max going ballistic was difficult to conjure, so he simply sat dumbfounded in the passenger seat as Isabel put the car into park.

“You really think someone grabbed them?” he asked.

Now that the engine had been stopped, the silence around them was nearly deafening. Isabel looked out at the rising sun for a moment, then nodded her head. “Yeah, Nate, I do.”

He frowned, his stomach starting to clench again. Who would want Emily and Liz? Liz had stayed impartial to the alien politics and Emily was just a baby. Of course, they were both connected very closely with Max and Nate, two people that hadn’t remained impartial to much of anything in the alien universe.

Nate’s eyes drifted to the brick bungalow; there was a light on in the kitchen. “My dad’s up,” he said quietly.

“I see that,” Isabel said.

“He’s going to wonder where we were. He’s going to be curious as to why Max is back in town.”

She nodded. “Yeah, I know.” She drummed her fingers lightly on the steering wheel. “I went out for a drive,” she said. “The car broke down and you came to help me.”

“On foot?” He raised an eyebrow skeptically.

Isabel worked her mouth and sighed. “No, that won’t do.”

They sat silently for a moment, then Nate gave her an ironic grin.

“You left your sunglasses in Liz’s rental car and we went back to the airport to see if it was still there,” he said.

Isabel smiled in relief. “Only, it has to be something more important than sunglasses to send us out in the middle of the night.”

“Your purse.”

“Good thinking. What about Max?”

Nate glanced at the house again. “Dad’s going to be leaving to open the store soon. Hopefully Max won’t arrive until he’s gone. Then we don’t have to explain anything.”

Isabel gave a quick nod of her head. “Excellent. Let’s go. Act happy and relieved.”

Happy and relieved. Nate felt neither as he stepped out of the car. It wasn’t until he stood that he realized his knees were shaking. Maybe it was just an effect of not finding Liz and Emily. Maybe the anxiety was just now starting to truly set in.

Or maybe that little whisper in his head had done this to him.

“Be strong, Nate,” Isabel said quietly as they approached the house, her face turned downward so Jonathan couldn’t read her lips should he happen to be watching out the window.

He swallowed and nodded silently. She knew he was shaking. She just didn’t know why.

The smell of warm maple syrup greeted them when they entered the house. Any other time, Nate may have been more than happy to sit down to a plate of his father’s pancakes, but on this day the smell nearly made him gag. Jonathan’s head poked around the kitchen door and he looked at his son quizzically.

“You know, I am such a ditz,” Isabel said laughingly. “I left my purse in Liz’s rental car. Can you believe it!”

Jonathan smiled at her, a knowing smile that read – yes you are a ditz, but I’ll forgive you because you’re a sweetheart.

“Then I had to drag poor Nate into it,” she continued dramatically, waving a hand toward her nephew. “Because I’m too much of a chicken to go to the airport by myself.”

“Oh, I didn’t mind,” Nate said, attempting to sound nonchalant as he dropped into one of the kitchen chairs. “It’s probably best that you took someone with you at that time of the night.”

Jonathan nodded his agreement as he placed a stack of pancakes on a plate. “Did you find it?”

“Thank God!” Isabel confirmed, then looked confused. “But I think I left it outside in the car again.”

Jonathan laughed lightly and sat down with his plate.

Nate felt sicker than he had earlier. How easy it was for her to switch on the charm. Years of honing that skill were paying off and if he hadn’t known better, he would have assumed all was fine. Isabel was an extremely good actress.

“There are more pancakes,” Jonathan said, waving with his fork. “Help yourself.”

“Thanks!” Isabel said happily. “I’m starved.”

Nate swallowed hard again.

“What about you?” Jonathan asked.

“I’m too tired to eat I think,” he said wanly. “I’m going to go crawl into bed for a bit. I’ll fix something later.” He rose, stretching and yawning for effect. “I’ll see you at the store later, Dad.”

Jonathan grunted an agreement and Nate made his escape. He knew that Alyssa was upstairs worried to death, so he quickly ran the steps and slid into his bedroom, shutting the door behind himself.

Alyssa looked up with dark eyes – she was sitting in the chair, Jake sleeping quietly on her lap. “Did you find them?” she asked hopefully.

Nate shook his head and went to sit on the bed facing her.

“What did you find out?” she asked, frowning, her bubble burst.

“She returned the car and it was already rented back out,” Nate explained. “Aunt Isabel and I searched the terminal and found nothing. It’s like they’ve just…vanished.”

Alyssa bit her bottom lip and squeezed Jake a little tighter. “What do we do now?”

“Wait for Max,” Nate said. “He should be here soon. Are you hungry? Dad made breakfast.”

She grimaced and shook her head. “No. I’ll puke if I even try to eat anything.”

Fifteen minutes later, Nate heard a car engine and looked down from his window to see Jonathan leaving for the store. That brought a little relief, but not much. Not ten minutes later, another car pulled into the drive – Max’s SUV.

“Max is here,” Nate said, glancing at Alyssa.

She nodded and rose to her feet, still cradling her son. Together, they descended the stairs to wait for Max. Isabel met them by the door, wringing her hands; Nate noticed that even though she’d taken a plate of food and had even cut into the stack of pancakes, she hadn’t taken a bite.

A few seconds later, the front door swung open and Nate took an involuntary step backward. Isabel’s warning had not been an exaggeration. In Max’s eyes, Nate saw something he never thought possible.

Max Evans looked like he wanted to kill.

tbc