What they seem (UC-CC,M/T I/A M/M,ADULT) Part 15 Jul 31 2007

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Chrisken
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What they seem (UC-CC,M/T I/A M/M,ADULT) Part 15 Jul 31 2007

Post by Chrisken »

Author name: Chris Kenworthy
Title: ...What they seem
Shipper Pairings: Max/Tess, Isabel/Alex, Michael/Maria, Liz/Sean. Kyle will probably find someone after a few chapters.
Category: Drama with a touch of mystery or suspense.
Rating: ADULT
Disclaimer: The characters of 'Roswell' belong to Jason Katims, Melinda Metz, Simon & Schuster pocket books, the WB, and UPN. They are not mine and no infringement is intended. The song "You'd better be sure" was not written by me or by Alex Whitman, although we did change the lyrics slightly to fit his situation. (I'm not sure who the songwriters are because I can't find the liner notes - it is sung by Shirley Myers.)
Summary: The aftermath of the '2001 Space Odyssey' prom brings new people together and ignites old passions. Trying to resolve tension in the group, Maria arranges an unusual getaway... which triggers an even more unexpected crisis.

Author's note: Yes, I'm writing a rebel fic, and what's more I'm trying to mix it with more traditional gazer and candy fare, as well as bringing in the lanewalkers and a surprise guest for Kyle. Aside from him, everyone stays with who they were with around the end of 'Heart of Mine.' If you're interested, go on reading. If not, then don't complain to me hehe.

What they seem
part 1

The kiss ended after a moment that had been hard to judge in real time. It had been good, better than I expected -- not perfect, because Tess and I were still a little awkward around each other maybe. But for a second beforehand all I could think of was our fir... well, our kiss last year, and how incredibly unsettling and strange it had been for me, and on some level I expected this to be the same.

Tess came clean to me about all of that last summer, by the way. Yes, her powers had been part of why I kissed her, or at any rate she'd been trying to influence me with them. Low-intensity subliminal images. I can understand why she did it better now. She had grown up with Nasedo, and he'd been training her on how to use her powers to do all kinds of disturbing things, because they might be necessary in the kind of life she'd have to lead. And Tess had this wild raging obsession with me when she first showed up, and hadn't expected me to be happily dating another girl, She hadn't seen the harm in trying to pull me away from Liz, just a little bit. Just to give me a taste.

I didn't understand that so well last summer. But over this past year... well, there were times when, if I'd known a way to use my powers to try and force Liz to see things my way, I'd have been tempted, despite knowing too well how bad and ultimately self-defeating it would be. Come to think of it, I kind of did something similar, when I kissed her that night, deliberately trying to give her a flash.

Oh, by the way, Tess also apologized to me, very sheepishly, quite a while after she'd confessed to mindwarping me back then. Right after christmas I think, or maybe it was before, after we'd come back from New York. Well, anyway, back to this kiss.

Tess had been tentative, nervous, but somehow very sweet. (The strawberry lip gloss she was wearing probably helped that.) And I'd been conflicted, my thoughts much more on Liz than they should have been maybe. Even after, as I looked at Tess' blushing face, Liz's voice was echoing in my mind, but the words that I heard were that speech she had given me out on the dance floor.

Liz wasn't the only one who had spent months feeling paralyzed, waiting for really bad news, I realized in that moment. I'd been waiting for her to tell me goodbye for good, that she had closed the door forever on what we had been. And now I'd heard the words. On the other hand, I still felt guilty, as if kissing Tess just then, contemplating the next step, would be a betrayal of Liz. Wasn't that kinda strange?? I mean, staying away from Tess and telling Liz that I was holding true to what I felt for her never seemed to get me anywhere.

Maybe it was because, if I really did move ahead with Tess, I'd have to tell Liz those words she was afraid of hearing. Well, perhaps it was better to go ahead and do that, rather than leave her waiting, paralyzed, for longer. Heck, there were times that it almost seemed like she was pushing me towards Tess. I didn't think I owed her anything more at this point... anything besides telling her the truth, that was.

"So, umm... what next?" I asked Tess, who was by this point staring at me as if wondering what all was running through my mind.

"Well, we could go back into the gym," she said softly. "Together."

"Ergggh."

Tess laughed a little, mellowly. "Not wild about that plan?"

"Not as such, right now," I admitted. "Just because... well, there are a bunch of people there who would see the two of us doing ANYTHING together as a signal. Liz and Maria, Alex and Isabel... I'm just not sure I want to make a big public statement until we've figured out exactly what it is that's going on here, and even though going in there together shouldn't have to be a big public statement, it would be anyway. Not really fair, but..."

"Hmm." She mulled that over. "And you want to make a discreet private statement to someone in particular first, maybe??"

I thought about that. Hadn't considered it in those terms yet, but... "Come to think of it, yeah. If the two of us are going to get involved, then I want Liz to hear it straight from me, in as calm a situation as can be arranged. I owe her that much, I think. Which means not tonight." There was no way that conversation could help being emotionally charged, after all that had happened already this evening. A thought struck me. "We could dance right here, if you want."

She smiled slightly. "Yeah, I think I'd like that. And talk more?" I nodded. "And maybe go back to our bench later?"

"Of course," I told her, unable to keep from smiling. If anybody had told me last year at this time that Tess Harding would be sentimental about a piece of park furniture, of all things... I got up and turned around to hold my hand down to her. "Umm, err..." Tried to think of something smooth and appropriate to say, but whatever it was, it just wouldn't come on cue.

And that didn't matter. Tess took my offered hand in her own and gracefully rose to her feet. "Charmed, I'm sure." And, a little uncertainly, we got into a diffident slow-dancing pose. There was a trace of music escaping from the DJ inside the dance proper, something sweet and lyrical and kinduv pretty, The distance between Tess and I, even as we danced, was thickly symbolic... there was distance that we'd still have to cross before anything conventionally romantic could start. But we'd each taken the first step now. The rest would either happen... or not. For tonight, we'd just take it really slow.

========

Alex, Isabel, Maria, and Michael all met up near the punch bowl around midnight.

"Glad to see you made it, Michael," Isabel said, shaking her head and wondering if he knew how close he'd come to blowing everything with Maria forever. Whatever it was that he'd been so worried about all week, Isabel was sure that Maria didn't care about it. She'd just wanted Michael to say that he'd come with her. Well, he was here now at least, and Maria looked like she couldn't be happier.

"I could say the same for you," Michael replied with a laid-back smile. "Heard about the early graduation thing. So I guess, for you this counts as a senior prom huh??"

"What??" Maria asked. "Isabel, you're going to be graduating this year?? That is so... well, it's totally not fair, either for you or for the rest of us. I haven't quite decided yet. Give me a minute."

Isabel laughed at that. "Umm, by the way, has anyone seen Liz lately??" Alex asked.

"Umm, she was with me until Michael came in, and, umm... well, I have to admit I haven't really seen her since," Maria explained. "You guys haven't seen her around??"

"I have to admit I haven't noticed much that's going on around me," Isabel explained.

"Well, what about Max?" Michael asked.

"Sweetie, Liz and Max broke up tonight," Maria told him softly. "That's why she was hanging out with me when you got here."

"Wait a second," Isabel pointed out. "Liz and Max weren't even dating! I mean, tonight was just a one-time special thing with them. How could they break up??"

"Because of the huge unresolved tension that's been between them all year," Maria pointed out. "They had this big huge... well, not huge really, but a really angsty blowout on the dance floor, and Liz said that she was suffocating. She'd seen Tess in his room, hugging him earlier this week."

"Uh-oh," Alex muttered. "And now Tess' date seems to be flying solo." He pointed across the room, where he had just noticed Kyle. "This cannot be good."

"Probably not," Isabel admitted. "But I move that for tonight, we don't get involved in other people's relationships and just focus on our own. How does that sound??" There were several nods. "Are you guys going to Arlene Baker's after-prom party??"

"Loud techno-punk music, those kaleido-dazzle lights she insists on renting, and vodka shots??" Maria recapped. "No, I think not, am I right honey?" She nudged Michael slightly.

"If I ever decide to bite the bullet and find out if I can drink safely, it won't be surrounded by a good fraction of the class of '03," he agreed. "Even if most of them will be drunk too. And the rest is even less appealing, so that's a big no." He looked over at Maria. "Not when we can go back to my place and have a party of two, huh?"

"Umm, I think that I might be able to find room in my social calendar for such an event, yeah," Maria agreed, softly giggling.

"Okay, just stop it right there, because I don't need to hear any more," Isabel insisted.

"Well, what about you guys?" Michael asked.

"I dunno, when they finally throw us outta here I bet we can find some other place to go, huh?" She looked at Alex, a slightly dreamy look on her face. "I'm not ready for this night to be over for, oh, at least three and a half hours yet, maybe more."

"I might have an idea that'll fit," he replied with a smile. "But I shall speak no more of it at the present time, for that it should be a surprise."

"Cool. For now, let's dance again." And she pulled him off onto the floor again.

"Bye!!" Alex waved comically to Michael and Maria as he went.

========

"Are you sure you want to go home already?" Sean DeLuca asked Liz as he frowned at the deadbolt keyhole from outside the bowling alley. "It's, like, hardly after twelve thirty."

"It's quarter to one, Sean," Liz corrected with a smile.

"Potato, pertahhtoe." With a quick poke from a mystery implement that Liz couldn't quite see, he turned the keyhole, and the bolt snapped back into place. "The after-prom parties are probably just starting to kick into gear. There has to be someplace that we could crash together."

Liz shook her head at him. "Thanks for the invite, Sean, but no. I want to go back to my place right away, there's some writing I want to do. But maybe we could grab lunch sometime soon, huh??"

"Umm, sure, whatever you say," he said with a bit of a smile. "Writing? Seriously??"

"Uh, yeah."

"Anyone ever tell you that you're really quite a dork, Parker?"

"Umm, yes actually. You, though not in the past few months."

"Ahh. And did anyone ever tell you that you're a very hot and sexy dork??"

Liz laughed out loud. "No, that's actually a new one on me. G'night Sean."

"Want a ride back to the Crashdown?"

"Umm... actually yeah, that'd be great."

"Okay, my car's half a block away." Liz followed him, shaking her head just a little.

========

"You want me to tell you what??" Tess repeated, in disbelief.

"You heard me, girl," I said. "Your most embarassing moment. I'll tell you mine afterward, if you want."

"I may hold you to that," she promised. "Okay, This was about, oooh, maybe two years before we met. We were living in a small town not too far outside Philadelphia, and I had made a *determined* effort to find some friends, and had actually made good with a crowd of about the coolest girls in the whole junior high. Until...."

"Well, one day at lunch, a few of them started talking about tattoos, and bragging about the designs that they wanted to get. One of them actually had a small lizard or something high up on her back, where it wouldn't normally show even with a crop top, and she showed it off a bit and got immense mojo points from the others."

"I'd never really thought of getting one, and knew that I could probably make one on myself without needles if I really wanted to, but wasn't sure if it would stand up to inspection from someone who really knew about tattooing. So I just joined in with the 'if only' sentiment, and said that I wanted to get a red Phoenix on my foreskin, only my dad would never let me. Someone actually pretended that they hadn't heard what I said, and I repeated it all word for word before catching the mistake, and quickly insisted that I had meant my forearm, a couple of times over.

"Still, I didn't even really know what a foreskin was, or why they were looking at me like I'd admitted to being a bug-eyed monster. None of them would tell me what it meant. When I finally managed to look it up in a medical dictionary, I nearly died of mortification, and I never said one word that I could help to any of those girls again. Always imagined that they spread the story around the whole school, though I never heard anything about it directly. Why would I? It was about four months until Ed had to move us into a new city, and that wasn't nearly soon enough for... for me." She was breathing hard, her voice trembling. It suddenly hit me that she might be only seconds away from crying.

"Sokay, it's okay." Instinctively I threw an arm around her shoulders, turning Tess' body slightly in so that our knees and shoulders touched. and ran my hand up and down her upper arm a little. "Maybe I shouldn't have asked you - I didn't realize that it would be that bad." Yet, in a very odd way deep down, I felt slightly satisfied with this outcome. If any of this was going to work, Tess would need to learn that she was safe around me, that love was about letting her walls down. She never seemed to be able to let herself be vulnerable, and I kind of wanted to change that, if I could. "Do you want me to tell you mine now??"

"Nah, it... it might just bum me out even more," Tess gasped through heavy sobs, though her cheeks were dry and her eyes, half open, only shone slightly. "Tell me... tell me something to cheer me up."

Oh boy. "Bit of a tall order maybe. Any way you could be more specific about what might do the job?"

"No, she admitted. After a second, her voice got real quiet and she whispered, "Maybe you don't have to say anything at all, just hold me like this."

I smiled slightly and kept my arm around her. We had left the halls of West Roswell High at around eleven thirty and gone, as Tess suggested, to 'our bench' -- a particularly unremarkable example of the species that dotted the sidewalks of Roswell, halfway between two affluent suburban homes on spacious landscaped lots.

But it had been this bench where I happened upon Tess, sitting and trying to come to terms with a grief that she couldn't admit, after Nasedo, the heartless protector who had been the closest thing she had to a father, had been murdered. I'd sat with her then, and we started to talk as she walked home, and then discovered that her house had been broken into and ransacked by his killer - by congresswoman Whittaker.

That night, I'd taken her to the protection of Sheriff Valenti, and even though Whittaker and most of the aliens she had plotted with were long since dust, Tess was still living with the Valentis. (Even though Jim was no longer the sheriff.) It was an arrangement with a number of subtle advantages both practical and psychological, or so it seemed to me, though I wasn't particularly close to the situation there.

And I'd been drawn here, also by some emotional urge that I hadn't been able to admit at the time, after going to Liz's window the night I had hoped would be our great reconciliation... and seen Kyle there with her, in her bed. I hadn't intedented to go to a place that I associated with Tess because Liz broke my heart, but somehow I had got there, and Tess had found me there, out walking and struggling with her own demons. Some kind of unusual bond between us had started that night, though I'm still not sure exactly what. Maybe I'll find out soon, at this rate.

Tess and I have met here, or gone here, a few other times, much less dramatic than the two that stick out in my mind. After she saved the four of us from killer aliens nearly burning us at the stake, on the afternoon of the time warp. A day or so after we both got back from New York. Sometime a couple of days before Michael and Maria kidnapped Laurie. I think there are more times that I can't remember at the moment. To me it's just kind of a bench, but I find it funny that Tess has attached a nearly mythic importance to the place. As I've said, she doesn't tend to get so sentimental about things.

Suddenly Tess spoke up again. "Do you really think it's... it's final between you and she-who-I-shall-not-name??"

I snorted in laughter at the way she had put that. "Not sure," I admitted a few seconds later. "Why do you ask?"

"I just... I know this may sound kind of harsh from your perspective, because she was the big love of your life, your soulmate and all that, but I feel like I've lived through this over and over already. You get upset at Liz, or resigned or annoyed or whatever, and you turn to me. You let me in a little, I let you in a little, and I get my hopes up. But the next day Liz says or does something completely empty that restores your hope and faith, and I end up out in the cold." There was a moment of silence. "I shouldn't have said that, should I?"

"No, I think I'm glad that you did," I said slowly. I didn't accept what Tess had just said for gospel truth, of course, but it seemed to be a pretty sincere expression of the way she saw the situation. The holding pattern that all three of us were stuck in, or at least had been stuck in until tonight, if Liz and I had finally managed to shake it loose. And it suddenly occured to me that I was actually hoping that I *was* loose, hoping that things between me and Liz were over, that we were each free to move on. Before, I had always been hoping that she'd give me another chance, that something would change her mind and she'd let me in.

That thought was deeply scary... that I WANTED to move on. But I daringly let it sit there, floating around my mind, to see what, if anything, happened to it.

"I think I can understand you getting frustrated that way," I told Tess slowly. "You've always been around, and have made it quite clear that you're willing to give me anything I want. If I've taken advantage of that, using you for an ego boost or a tiny bit of meaningless affection whenever I thought I needed it, without committing enough to give you anything back, then I'm sorry."

"It's okay," she assured me. "I don't blame you, especially since I let you get away with it. Just kinduv thought it was time to assert myself and let you know that I'm tired of it."

"Yeah, it was time," I agreed, "and thank you. I'm not sure how much I'm ready to give you back yet, but I'll start here. I like you Tess, and I'm attracted to you. I've been afraid for a long time of even admitting that to myself, because I do have strong feelings for Liz and I thought that liking someone else was a betrayal of them. Maybe it is, but I'm not going to hide it anymore even so."

She smiled a little. "Well, I have to say I'm glad to hear that." She sighed a little, contentedly. "Anything else?"

"Something else I've been meaning to tell you since we kissed, that you might not be so happy to hear," I said slowly. She looked up at me, those blue eyes looking big and delicate in the white street light. "I'm interested in learning more about my heritage, about our planet and even the lives that we lived before there. I'm interested in the possibility of taking our relationship to another level, though I want to take that slow and be careful about it if we do go ahead with that."

"But..." I took a long moment to try and collect my thoughts and mentally organize them into words as well as I could in that time. "To me, the two things are seperate. The past is the past, and under the circumstances it has to stay dead. There may be a lot of things that my heritage has to tell me, but I don't intend to continue that life that I once had. It ended, and I was born again here on Earth, to a new family and new circumstances. We all were, though we weren't all equally fortunate with the new families we got handed. But this is a new life, and I mean to live it that way, making new choices and new opportunities. I'm not going to continue the relationship, the marriage that we had once-upon-a-time, Tess. If we start something, tonight or later, we're starting fresh, and I'd appreciate if whatever relationship we have is grounded in this life and this world, as much as possible."

I sighed. "I realize that that's a lot to lay on you all at once, and expecting you to have a quick reply is kinduv unfair. I just wanted to make sure it got said. Of course, if you do have something that you want to say..."

"I do." Tess reached out, took my hand, and pulled it toward her slightly. I let her do what she wanted, and after a few seconds my hand was between both of hers, one of which was resting on her right leg. (Which was the one that was closer to me, the way we were sitting on the bench.) "I... I have to admit that I've never really thought of things that way, which is probably down to Ed. Whenever he actually talked to me, he would spend a lot of that time filling my hand with stories about the way things were going to be. He never said anything directly about having lived a life before, but after listening to the stories a little while, I realized that they weren't just about destiny, about that-which-was-to-come, (in his mind at least.) Parts of the stories were also once-upon-a-time, and I realized that he literally knew I had been in those stories. Didn't understand the how or why of it until after we got the orbs working, but I pressed him for details and that was around the time he started teaching the spirit memory connection techniques. Umm, I kinda got myself sidetracked there huh?"

"A little bit," I admitted, brushing a strand of hair off Tess' face. "But it's something I was kinda curious about. Why did you never mention those 'once-upon-a-time' stories, or spirit memories, when we first met?"

"Umm, let's see," Tess smiled, and suddenly I realized what parts, at least, of the answer would be. "Took me a little while just to work myself into admitting that I was one of you, at the start. The three of you were freaked out enough just from looking at the pictures in the book, and talking about pregnancy dreams and what-have-you... I wasn't going to throw in yet more weirdness until that had calmed down. And then the whole thing with the Special Unit hit..."

"Yeah, I get the picture," I admitted. "So, um, do you want to try to get back to my big declaration?"

She smiled and took a deep breath. "I still want to go back home, someday at least. I do consider my old life to be an important part of who I am. But if you want to keep things in the here and now, I can deal. At least for now, and who really knows what might happen down the road, y'know?"

I frowned a little, not sure if I should be worried about those caveats. By leaving the issue unresolved, would we be setting ourselves up for huge unreconcilable differences later on? Well, at least each of us had an idea what the package we were going in for was like. As she said, whatever would be would be.

"Did I tell you about the time I used my powers to put out a huge oil fire in the kitchen, right in front of my mom?" I asked.

========

Maria giggled as she brought the Jetta to a gentle rest just a few feet away from the front walk to Michael's apartment, and he told her not to move while he rushed around the car, and opened her door for. The chivalrous gesture seemed a little out of place with Michael, but Maria only took a second to decide that it was adorable of him to at least try. She kissed him passionately, there on the sidewalk, and then they turned to walk in. Maria immediately stumbled and nearly fell flat on her front against the rough concrete.

"Hey, hey," Michael said, crouching down beside as she caught her balance. "Did somebody spike the punch after all?"

"No, it'z not that," Maria insisted. "Just, well, my legs are tired from all of the dancing I've done tonight, and with the high heeled shoes, I just had a slight walking failure there. Nothing to get all excited."

"Hmm." Michael considered this. "Well, I can't do anything about your tired legs I guess, so take off the shoes."

"What?"

"You heard me. You could've split your chin open there, or something even worse. Hand them over!"

Maria shook her head in disbelief, but she bent down and managed to get the white leather heels off of her feet, and Michael quickly picked them up. Maria started walking, but the concrete on her bare soles was no less uncomfortable than the heels had been, if less unstable and prone to accident perhaps.

"Why don't you let me carry the shoes," she asked after a moment, "and you can just carry me?"

Michael shook his head and looked behind them, judging the distance. They were nearly at the midpoint of the front walk already. "Halfway inside?" He asked. "Then you're on your own, I don't think carring you up the stairs is really a good idea, as romantic as it might be."

"I'll take what I can get." Soon enough they were exactly halfway, and Michael gave her back the shoes and gathered up a substantial, pretty-smelling armful of Maria DeLuca.

She paid him back for every step he carried her in kisses -- but that was later of course, once they'd made it up to his apartment.

==========

"Alex Charles Whitman is *full* of great ideas!!" Isabel called out into the emptiness of quarter to two in the morning. He tried to shush her, but she shook her head, wisps of hair that had escaped the upsweep flying to and fro. "Well, you are," she insisted in a more conversational volume, "and I don't care who knows it. At the rate I'm going, that might not be the most embarassing I shout out into the park tonight!"

Alex just shook his head and very obviously focused plenty of attention on cutting a small morsel of flapjack loose, (not putting too much elbow grease in, or the plastic knife might slip entirely through the large polystyrene clamshell,) and dipped it in just enough imitation maple syrup. Or possibly hybrid maple syrup... one of those 10% real maple syrup, 90% corn syrup with artificial maple flavoring deals. He wasn't sure, and frankly wasn't worrying about it too much.

The particular great idea that Isabel had been shouting about seemed relatively ordinary and everyday to Alex... to go out into the middle of the park after prom, and to bring along a 'picnic breakfast' from a twenty-four hour breakfast diner. But he was at least glad that she was enjoying herself. He'd even found a huge beach towel in the back of his dad's car, since there was already summer dew on the grass, and a small bottle one-third full of tabasco for her to sprinkle onto her... just about everything.

"So, any big ideas for your summer?" Isabel asked, her long finger idly twiddling one of the buttons on his tuxedo.

"Not really. Maybe get a job, save up some money for senior year or college. I had fun putting in a few mornings every week at The Java Server last summer. Maybe I can get a bigger shift there this time."

"Cool." Isabel smiled, and speared a bit of french toast, ham and canteloupe on her fork, eating it like a tiny little kebab. "Just don't work yourself TOO hard - summer is meant for having fun too."

"Don't think that'll be a problem," Alex admitted. "So, what about you? Any big plans for the future?"

Izzy shrugged. "About all I've decided is that I don't want to go away to college yet. Maybe I'll take a year off, volunteer for charity around town, that kind of thing. I don't think my parents would mind me staying at home if I was doing something like that."

"Sounds right up your alley," Alex admitted. "Maybe you should try expanding your horizons a little too. You told me once how disappointed you were that Michael gave up the drawing once he'd found Atherton's house. You could try writing poetry, or finger-painting, or playing the piano."

"Hmm..." Isabel whispered, intrigued but uncertain. "Well maybe. Umm... is there any jam in there?"

Alex rooted around in one of the takeout bags, and passed her nearly a dozen little packs. "That enough?"

Isabel laughed, sorted through them, and opened something that looked red. "So, speaking of music, which you kinda were, any news about the band lately?"

"Um, yeah, actually, we've finally got the practice schedule sorted out, and Marko signed us up for the Bandzfest tryouts." Alex said. "I'm not sure if I've kept up my licks, but it'd be nice to get into the contest. Pretty stiff competition, I don't think there's much chance we'd win, but..."

"Oh, don't sell yourself short," Isabel said, and he smiled at her. "After all, Bandzfest is basically just a popularity contest with the high school crowd... get the right people boosting you and anything can happen!" Alex shoved her playfully a little.

Fifteen minutes later, he was singing to her there in the park.

"Did you say - you don't - have to worry
Did you find what you've been looking for?
Oh yeah... I don't know.

If you say - you want - me to be
Your one and only, well are you really sure?
Oh yeah... 'Cause I know."

Alex had had his bass guitar in the back seat as well, and was sitting on the seat of one of the park picnic tables, the only sounds coming from his instrument and his own tenor voice... unpolished, but deep with feeling. Isabel had moved off of the towel - she wanted to feel the grass beneath her, and had absolutely ignored Alex's gentle warnings that it probably wasn't the best thing for her dress.

"I've been waiting for a long long time.
I've gotta get this off my mind:"

And Alex grinned at her as he launched enthusiastically into the chorus of the song for the first time.

"If you would touch my lips with a tender kiss,
Well I know that it would *shake me up.*
And if you held me tight, for just one night
I'd never ever give you up.
Girl, you'd better be sure...
That love is what you're lookin' for."

Isabel grinned and let out a little whoop as he strummed along, getting ready for the second verse. She knew that the message in the words was a mixed one, but right now she was mostly enjoying the melody and harmony for their own sake. At this moment, Isabel thought that she could answer affirmatively to that unspoken question, but Alex didn't want that. He would prefer a considered answer, given later, and that was fine. Tonight was just about tonight.

"Would you say - there's no doubt -
That I'm the one you always thought
And dreamed about?
Oh yeah... would you know?

Oh 'cause then - I could say -
Exactly how I feel about you
In every way.
Oh yeah... oh I know.

If you think that you're ready for this,
Then we could find out what true love is!"

Alex was grinning, too, as he went back into the chorus. "If you would touch my lips with a..." The two of them were the only ones in the world, it had been made for them and them alone. The great electric lights of the park stood at a distance, in respectful attention. Once the chorus was completed, Alex stopped singing and improvised a much longer instrumental sequence on the bass, stretching it out for about eight measures.

"'Cause love's something that you won't find
Just anywhere with anyone.
But if it's what you really want,
Then, girl, I'm the lucky one!!

If you would touch my lips with a tender kiss,
Well I know that it would shake me up.
And if you held me tight, for just one night
I'd never ever give you up.

Girl, you'd better be sure...
Girl, you'd better be sure...
Girl, you'd better be sure
That love is what you're lookin' for."

"Oh, yeah yeah, yeah yeah," Alex sang along as the melody started to wrap up. "Oh, you'd better be sure, oh yeah, that love is what you're looking for." He hummed and 'yeah-ed' a bit more, before wrapping up with as much of an instrumental flourish as he could. Isabel got up and ran across the grass to him, waiting for him to put the bass aside. Then she kissed him, impulsively and firelike.

"You'll find out, just how sure I am," she promised under her breath. "Count on it."


TO BE CONTINUED...
Last edited by Chrisken on Tue Jul 31, 2007 5:58 am, edited 18 times in total.
Read my other roswell stories!

"A man does not make his destiny: he accepts it or denies it. If the Rowan tree's roots are shallow, it bears no crown." From 'the farthest shore', Ursula LeGuin.

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Chrisken
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Post by Chrisken »

part two

Disclaimer additional: 'Nerilka', the world of Pern, and all associated things are not my creation but Anne McCaffrey's, of course.

"Ohhh," Maria sighed, and giggled happily. "Well, that was really... incredible." She and Michael had been making out on his bed for more than an hour, not going beyond any established limits but taking their time and stretching out the proceedings, until a kind of laziness had overcome both of them, and for about fifteen minutes now they'd just been lying next to each other... well, to be precise, lying with Michael's arms around Maria's midriff and her head leaning on his shoulder. Michael was still wearing his tuxedo pants, and his undershirt, and Maria's puffy dress had been carefully removed and hung up in the approved fashion, leaving her in only delicate white underwear.

"Yeah, I'm not complaining," Michael agreed, "except that this night seems to be getting away from us, and I have to work tomorrow." He looked at the old clock radio on his headboard, which was currently showing an odd pattern of LEDs that didn't spell out anything at all. Whapping the clock just to one side of the volume knob fixed that temporarily, as a circuit got jostled back into place somewhere within the electronic workings, lighting up another set of lines, completing the reading of 4:42 am.

"Oh, boy," Maria sighed, looking at the clock herself and making a half-hearted attempt to get up. "If I'm not there when my mom wakes up, she's gonna go ballistic."

Michael thought about that. "Are you sure you're not too tired to drive or anything?? I think your mom would be happier grounding you for staying out all night after prom, than if you got into a crash and split your head open. I know I would be."

Maria thought about that a moment. "I'm okay, I'll be fine," she assured him, scrambling up and giving her lazy boyfriend a hot kiss goodbye. "Feel rested now, it isn't that long a drive back to my place, and the streets will be practically empty this late - or early, whatever." Michael's eyes narrowed, not entirely satisfied. "I'll be careful, spaceboy, and... and don't worry, okay?"

After a moment, he smiled. "Alright. Sweet dreams, little princess."

Maria almost tripped on her way out of the room. "What did you just call me?"

"Umm... I'm pretty sure you heard me," Michael mumbled, "and I'm not gonna say it again right now, kay?"

"Alright. I *did* hear you," she confirmed, smiling tenderly at him. "And I liked it."

And a moment later, she was closing his apartment door and hurrying over to the stairs.

==========

"Goodnight, Max," Tess told me as she rested her hands on the open bedroom window, probably still trying to figure out how she could scramble through in her purple prom dress while keeping any dignity and grace. "It wasn't at all the kind of prom night that I was expecting, but... I had a great time."

"Yeah, me too," I admitted. Morning twilight was already starting. "You know, you could probably go through the front door without getting in trouble."

"Maybe," she admitted. "But I always wanted to try this and it seems like a good excuse." She scrambled up what seemed to be an invisible ladder and got herself inside the room, turning back to me. "One more kiss, my prince?"

I shrugged. "Maybe a little one." Tess bent down, (since the window was right above a dresser,) and I stretched up and kissed her smoothly on the lips. "Good night."

"Good morning, at least for me," she replied, smiling. "I don't think I could sleep, at least not until noon or so."

"Lucky for you," I teased. "If I tried that, I'd probably faint into the flying saucers exhibit."

She shook her head. "You know Max, sometime the irony of working at that place is going to catch up with you, and then I dunno where we'll all be. But sweet dreams."

"Thanks." Not wanting to drag out the goodbyes any longer, (especially because Mister Valenti just might go out on patrol,) I stepped away from the window and waved at her. Tess was definitely right, this wasn't anything like I imagined prom night would be. Neither Tess nor I had left with the people we'd came to the dance with, but things had ended badly with me and Liz, Tess and Kyle, and this new beginning, or possibility of a beginning, between us was more than a consolation. I wasn't sure what would happen with it next, but I knew what had to happen first.

Oh, I was *so* not looking forward to that conversation with Liz.

==========

I found her sitting on the second stair of the flight that led up towards the school library and the math rooms, twenty minutes before first bell, an open science text on her lap. "Mind if I join you?"

A totally inarticulate sound emerged from Liz, and I kept standing there, irresolute. "It's a free country," she added after a long moment, in an unfriendly tone.

On any other day, I probably wouldn't have really continued against such hostile passivity. But I wanted to get this over with, and Liz probably wouldn't be too happy with me by the time I'd said my piece anyway. So did it really make much difference if she started off sour? I sat down on the step next to her, (nobody else seemed to care about using the stairs for their primary function,) and cleared my throat. "There's... there's something that I have to tell you about, and it's not easy to find the words. Uhh, okay... the other night, at the dance, after we, ummm..."

"I saw the two of you," Liz blurted out. "Sitting together, and I saw you lean in and kiss her, and she kissed you back. That's when I took off, before the kiss ended, so I'm not surprised that neither of you noticed me there."

Ouch. "Well, that's a part of it," I admitted. "I didn't want you to find out about it that way, but I guess there was no particular way to prevent it. Tess and I had our moment when it came upon us, and you walked in just then. Sheer coincidence." I was struggling with this odd notion that Liz had caught me in something illicit, but that was crazy. She had no hold on me, especially after what she'd told me earlier that night. Liz had no proper say over who I kissed, then or now...

...No more than I had had a say who she invited into her bed last fall, I suppose. I had felt betrayed back then, with about as little rational justification as I felt myself the betrayer now. The heart has its own rules, beyond rationality. But it isn't always right, or always wrong.

"So you and Tess are together now," Liz spat the words out, rousing me from inner turmoil.

"Umm... it might be a little early to say that," I qualified. "We talked a lot that night after the kiss, and we're going to take things slow and see if they lead anywhere. But I've opened my heart to her, at least a little, yes."

"I'm so happy for both of you," Liz choked out, her voice quavering.

Something rubbed me the wrong way at that moment. All of Liz's 'poor poor me, I have to give my soulmate up to the other woman,' self-pity, which I had seen faint glimpses of before, seemed nearly out in the open, and it looked even more hollow than most self-pity. Liz didn't have to do any one thing about the odd love triangle that she, I, and Tess had found ourselves in. (More than a triangle, if you count the fact that Kyle and Sean DeLuca seemed to be involved too, but never mind that.)

Now, I'm not trying to place any blame here, just explain the situation from my perspective. Liz had chosen to run away from me the day we got the message from my mother... (at a point in my life, by the way, when I could have really used her support, having just been through my stay in the White Room and our final series of confrontations with Agent Pierce.) She chose to leave the state as soon as finals were done, running away from me for months.

She pushed me away in the early fall, and then moved on to the sending of mixed signals... and I had had enough. "Whatever is or might be happening between Tess and I, it isn't because we were married in some other life or because we're destined to be together," I snapped at Liz. "It's because you pushed me away, Liz. I would glady have been by your side, in any capacity, if you had only let me back in. But I've given you and me our last chance, and doing my best to move on, for the sake of the future."

Liz's face had become something unfamiliar during that speech, which somehow didn't surprise me. "When I left the prom, I went to Sean DeLuca," she retorted, and I realized that she'd shared that tidbit in the hope of hurting me, the same way that I'd hurt her.

It did hurt, a little, deep down. But letting her see that would just get us further into a negative pattern. (Or maybe my pride just wouldn't let me.) So I did my best to keep a steady voice and said, "I hope that you find your own happiness, Liz. With Sean or with someone else, whatever." And after a few seconds there didn't seem to be anything left to say, so I got up and went.

==========

"Guess who?!" The words were said behind him just before a pair of hands reached around to cover Alex's eyes, which he was pretty sure was a reversal of the traditional order. But he laughed at the thought that the person playing games with him could even imagine that he wouldn't recognize her voice.

"Well, that would be my prom date, Isabel Evans. I only ever get easy people to guess playing this game. Now, if, to pick someone at random, Brian Wilkers of Hazington Kentucky wanted to play guess who, I might have a hard time coming up with the right answer, possibly because I've never met a Brian Wilkers and I'm not even sure if there's a town named Hazingtom in Kentucky... but you know what I mean, right?"

While he had been rattling the body of that speech off, Isabel had uncovered his eyes again and stepped around so that she was facing him from about three and a half feet away -- classic 'semi-intimate' personal spacing. "It's not supposed to be hard," she told him after a moment.

"Then why do people think it's fun to play?" Alex teased her, and then grinned. She chuckled softly, and turned around to stand beside him so that they could continue to walk to school together.

"So, I was -- wondering... if you had any plans... for tonight," Isabel said haltingly.

"Umm." Alex spent a few seconds wondering how to reply to this. "Actually, yes, I was meaning to stay in and wash my hair. Need to take special care of it to look this good, you know."

Isabel giggled at the thought. "Well, that sounds great, but maybe you'd like to put it off 'til tomorrow and come see a movie with me. There's a good college-applications comedy with Jack Black playing at the Goldentown, and we could grab a quick snack first at Mario's, and... umm, say something please?"

Alex took a deep breath and Isabel's hand in his. "I don't think so tonight, but maybe another time??"

She shot a confused and slightly hurt look at him, and Alex continued. "Isabel, I am thrilled that you're paying attention to me and wanting to spend time with me, even go out on a date. But... well, I'm also a little gunshy, or beautiful-girl-shy I guess, when it comes to you."

Isabel's face fell a little bit further, but she nodded. "Because of all the times we've gotten involved and then I pulled away, broke things off with you because something confusing had happened in my admittedly very weird life. And because each time I hurt you."

"Yes," he admitted softly, in only half a whisper. "Every time I think that you really mean it, I let you in, because I keep wanting to believe that there's a way it can work out for us. And every time I get my heart broken a bit."

Isabel thought about that a moment as she walked. "So, have I used up all my chances?" she asked in a very little voice. "I know that it's hard for just about anybody to break their patterns, but I really do want to this time. I don't intend to let anything get in the way if we get another chance."

Alex smiled. "No. I don't think I could keep you locked out forever just because I'm afraid of getting hurt. But, on the other hand, it seems to be that if I keep giving you the runaround as long as I can, it might increase the possibility that you're sincerely determined, and that you won't let go easily. Let me take it at my own pace??"

"Umm, sure," Isabel said after a moment. But I get to tease you and see if that'll cut down the amount of time you're willing to wait, she added to herself silently. Hmm, now where did I put that leather skirt that I know Alex really likes??

It was just about at that moment that another teenager intercepted them... Maria, coming up fourth street. "Hey, how was your post-prom??" she asked with a grin as she fell into step beside Alex.

"Umm..." Isabel shot a look at Alex. "I had a great time. And you?"

"No complaints at all," Maria said. "How about you, Alex, did you have a great time too?"

He paused just a moment. "Certainly a very good time."

"Hmmm." Maria pulled ahead a little so that she could turn her head back and look at their faces in more than profile. "Out of sheer curiosity, are the two of you an item again now??"

"No," Isabel replied. "But you might say we're in negotiations."

Maria blinked in surprise, and had opened her mouth when Alex said, "please, don't ask right now."

"Umm... alright then. Well, anyway, I've got an idea for a post-finals surprise for everybody, but some of the details need working out. Like exactly who's going to pay the piper and how."

"Umm... sounds intriguing I admit," Alex replied, smiling. "What's the scoop?"

"Not here, not now," she told them. "Come by my place at 4 o'clock and knock on the back door."

"You're just being secretive and mysterious for the sheer fun of it," Isabel accused.

"Why else??" Maria grinned a self-satisfied grin.

==========

Tess and I both smiled a little nervously when we realized that we were approaching the classroom for econ from opposite directions, at the same distance and speed. It was a few minutes before the bell rang, and Missus Evellson didn't keep a strick seating plan, so after we filed inside I took a shallow breath and a seat next to Tess, who had already moved into her usual seat on the other side of the room from the windows.

"I, um, I talked to Liz this morning," I told her. "Told her that something had happened between us, though as it happened, she kinduv already knew."

Tess looked up at that, startled. "Already knew?? Like how?"

"Umm... well, she'd been looking for me around school while the prom was going on, and found both of us... right when we kissed. She took off, and neither of us really noticed that she'd been there I guess."

"Eeesh," Tess made a face. "Well, the chances that Liz is going to be okay about us maybe dating kinda go down a notch and half now, right?? Not exactly how either of us wanted her to find out."

"No," I admitted. "But that's the way it happened, and there's nothing to be done about it now. Probably nothing that could have been done to prevent it at the time, come to think of it. And I don't think Liz has a say right now in who I do or don't date."

Tess smiled at that. "Well, how about dinner tonight, and a short walk around afterwards? Nothing fancy."

I thought about that, and it sounded like a good way to start. "Yeah, I'd like that. Any idea where we should eat?"

"There's always the taco bell."

I laughed. "Cool, alright."

Then the teacher called us to attention, and we couldn't talk any more. The notion of passing notes to Tess passed through my mind, but Evellson is pretty sharp and I didn't want to get busted for it... again, because it was me and Tess. News about who had been caught passing notes to who (or even who had been spotted passing notes to whom, as in by other students as opposed to being 'caught' by teachers,) always spread quickly through West Roswell High's grapevine, it seemed to me. I never paid that much attention to the grapevine myself, but often when I heard Isabel or Maria indulging in gossip it was that sort of thing.

And, like the other night at the prom, I felt very definite about the idea that whatever was happening or not happening between Tess and I was nobody else's business, until we decided to start telling people and being more relaxed and open about it. To Michael and Isabel, Maria and Alex, it would be sending a signal that would probably (and strangely) affect their own relationships, because of the way things had been polarized last year as destiny versus free choices... foursquare versus human/alien couples. The fact that I would be starting this thing with Tess because of a free choice, not destiny, and not because of the foursquare would probably not be easy to accept.

And, even though I'd told Liz about us already, I didn't want her to hear more about 'us' than I could help, at least for now. Maybe not until she told me she was okay with it. So I didn't pass any notes, and I felt relieved that Tess didn't pass me any. But I wasn't really thinking about the requirements of perfect competition.

I was thinking of taco bell, and remembering the perfume that Tess had worn to the dance.

==========

Kyle was rushing down the east corridor of the school building when something set off a mental alarm bell. He slowed down and shook his head, trying to figure out what it was, and only just realized in time.

Liz had just gone through a door that led out to the school grounds.

Now, in general, that might not be so strange. Even really good, fiercely determined students like Liz Parker sometimes left the school building for lunch or during their study hall periods. But... well, Liz didn't have lunch or study hall for fifth class. She had english lit like a lot of her friends, the same class that Kyle had been hurrying to, with only about thirty seconds before the bell rang.

It wouldn't be exactly fair to say that Kyle's curiosity fought with his own study ethics. Though he hadn't had any particular reason to ditch before spotting Liz, now there was simply no contest in his mind. He rushed through the door, following her.

Liz made her way, none too quickly, to the gate on Willow avenue, turned around, and saw Kyle about ten feet behind her. It seemed to take her a few tries to come up with something to say. "Are you going to get on my case?"

"Me?" Kyle replied, a little surprised. "Never. I'm certainly the last person to comment on someone else skipping class... except that I kinda just did, so sorry. I... well, I was curious. It isn't something you see every day."

Liz smiled grimly, shook her head, and waved Kyle closer. They crossed the street more or less together, and Liz started to lead the pace away from the school building. "Let's just say that there are a few people in english lit I didn't want to see. Plus, the final is in three days and we've already finished reading everything. She's either going to be giving people make-work or pretending to give tips for the exam that really don't help at all."

"Um, okay," Kyle replied. "I'll file that away. In the meantime... who is it you don't want to see? Can I ask??"

Liz stopped for a moment, with an odd expression on her face. "She didn't tell you??"

"Umm..." Kyle frowned. "She who, and tell me what?"

Liz looked around, back and forth, and sat down against the side of a car that looked unlikely to have a touch sensitive alarm. Sure enough, no racket replied. "Umm... well, it's Tess and Max. They're... umm, well, they're not quite a couple yet, according to Max, but they're probably starting something."

"Oh, boy..." Kyle frowned. "I'm sorry, Liz, I know you really didn't want to hear that." He stood there a moment, looking at her uncomfortably. "On the other hand, this kind of gives me an opportunity to bust Evans' chops, so things aren't all bad."

Liz giggled. "I have to admit, at the moment I like the idea of you annoying him, but, err, exactly what's this opportunity again??"

"Well, not sure if you heard, but at the prom I kind of figured out that Tess is like a sister to me now. So Max is going to be going out with my sister... which adds up to heckling and harassment!!"

"Like a sister to you?" Liz sighed. "I mean... well, I understand that you can't pick these things, but couldn't you have taken one for the team? Just for the prom??"

"Umm... huh?" Kyle's face showed the puzzle inside his mind. "What about..."

"They got together outside the prom," Liz explained. "Probably right after you decided the sister thing?"

"Oh, yeah," Kyle replied, hitting his head. "Yeah, she went over to sit with him right after; I can't believe I forgot that. So, erm... do you want to do something, go out and forget our post-prom troubles?? The Black Coyotes are going to be playing tomorrow night at Matt Lennon's. I can get two tickets."

Liz thought about that, and started walking again. She looked over at Kyle and flashed him a smile. "Thanks for the offer, really -- I appreciate it. But, well, I kind of have a rebound guy already lined up, and going off to a rock club with you is likely to make the situation pretty complicated."

"Dammit," Kyle muttered, and chuckled softly. "Where's my rebound girl??"

"Well, you were never really dating Tess before the abortive prom disaster," Liz commented, "so I'm not sure you qualify for a rebound girl in the traditional sense. But I'll keep an eye open for your dream girl. Blonde, I assume??"

"Umm... yeah, probably, though I wouldn't rule out a hot brunette of course," Kyle joked.

Liz nodded with a faint smile, and they kept walking on. "Umm, you mean to just keep walking on until next class?"

"Maybe," Liz agreed. "Don't want to head back just yet. Maybe by history I'll be ready to face them."

"Ennh." Kyle thought about that. "Want to stop in at the corner store and grab some sodas, or will that make the situation too complicated."

Liz laughed. "No, I think that'll be fine, but you're buying."

"Hey, get your own!!"

==========

Michael was already hurrying down the hall in my direction when I got out of Mister Lewis' class. (Of course, he'd waited until after the bell rang to give us our test reminder and homework assignments, so the timing wasn't TOO fishy.) I set an intercept course and nodded hello. "What's up?"

"That was my line," he muttered, putting one arm around me and pulling me along in the direction that he'd been going. "A little bird told me some interesting news... that I would have thought I'd be getting straight from you, man."

Uh-oh. "A little bird?" I repeated slowly.

"...named Maria," he added. "I can tell that you know what I'm talking about, so just say it and spare me the injustice of having to tell YOU."

I sighed, shaking my head. "Tess and I -- but I'm not sure there's as much to tell as Maria might have gotten to think..." Michael was just staring at me. "Okay, we kissed outside the dance. And we're going to be grabbing a bite to eat, tonight, and talking some -- because in a lot of ways she's still a stranger to me. But, well, make of that what you will, man. I didn't want to mention it to you this soon because..."

"...If I thought you were giving into destiny, I might dump Maria and keep Isabel and Alex from getting back together?" Michael snorted. "I think I could count about a dozen reasons that I don't see that happening."

"Well, not that exactly," I replied. "But, given the baggage held in common by our little tribe, I thought that there would be some people who'd react as if it were their business in a way that it's not. Glad to see that that isn't you."

Michael smiled a little. "No, man, I'm not going to stand in the way or anything if this is something you think you might want."

I nodded back at him appreciatively. "I told Liz because I thought she had a right to know. Apparently she bitched and vented to Maria, and Maria told you." I sighed. "Do you think it stops there, or is the cat out of the bag?"

"Well, I won't tell anyone else if you want," he told me, "but I'm not so sure Maria and Liz will extend the same courtesy. Think you guys are going public, like it or not." I sighed.

"The funny thing is... it really wasn't about choosing Destiny -- at least, not for me it wasn't. I even told Tess that for me, it had to be about here and now, not past lives long ago. Tess is someone definitely... amazing and lovable in her own right, and I think the whole thing about us being married in the past kept me from seeing that for a long time, because I was being stubborn about my independence and afraid of anything I associated with my alien side."

Michael considered that for a moment. "Cool. But you guys are gonna take it slow, right? Um... you know what I mean, yeah?"

"Umm, I think so, and -- definitely. At least, I don't mean to rush into anything, and I think I can put the brakes on even if she throws herself at me." Little laugh to indicate that the idea was meant as a joke. "Neither of us need extra complications in this scenario... least of all another pregnancy scare, stars forbid."

"Yeah," Michael agreed passively, and we walked along together in silence. Classes were over for the day at this point, and Michael led the way, (either that, or no-one was leading the way and we just drifted,) out into the student Courtyard. After a moment, Michael caught sight of a familiar figure in the scene and rushed ahead, leaving me to follow. "Hey, Maria, wait up!"

Maria turned and waited for both of us to arrive with a bittersweet expression on her face. "Sorry, spaceboy, I can't orbit with you today. Made other plans."

Michael's face fell. "What kind of other plans?"

"Umm... the kind that involve meeting with Isabel, and Alex, and planning a huge surprise for you -- for the whole gang of us actually, once finals are through."

Michael got an odd, conflicted expression on his face. "Umm... there's no chance I can convince you to let me in on the secret right now and help arrange everything?"

Maria didn't hesitate for an instant. "No, no way, I've already ruled that out." She smiled brightly in an attempt to keep Michael from taking it poorly.

Michael didn't -- he took it with a carefree shrug. "Ah well, had to try." He turned back to me. "Looks like it's the two of us now Maxwell... how about we go back to your place and try to make some headway in that 'City of Angel' computer game you got??"

I smiled. "Sounds cool. Good luck with the surprise, Maria."

She kissed Michael on the cheek and turned to go without answering me... come to think of it, she hadn't acted as if I were there once during the whole conversation, had she? Probably some kind of passive-aggressive venting about the Tess thing... well, she can keep that up for the time being if she feels like it.

I smiled at Michael, a little awkwardly, and headed over to where the Jeep was parked.

==========

"Gotta admit, if she manages to pull it off, this'll be pretty cool," Alex said with a smile as he and Isabel headed down the street away from Maria's house.

"You think she might not?" Isabel asked after a moment. "Pull the idea off, I mean."

"Ehhh... no, she probably will, I admit. Got all of her ducks in a row, this time, it looks like." Alex shrugged and decided to change the subject away from Maria's special surprise. "So, you got any plans for the rest of tonight??"

"Well, I *did*," Isabel shot back pointedly. "But you didn't want to come see the movie!!"

Alex broke out into a grin. "No, I didn't. You could go watch it yourself."

"Uh-uh!!" Isabel actually stamped her foot a little, upset. "You said another time, so I'm saving it for you, mister."

"Okay," Alex replied. "Well, I suppose there's no reason that we can't do something together this evening, if we steer clear of the traditional date activities."

Isabel looked over at him and smiled. "Well, I'm going to be getting hungry soon. Does grabbing some food together count as a traditional date activity?"

Alex had a smile on his face too. "Hmmm... borderline case. Grabbing food just about anywhere is something that two people on a date can do, but it's also something that friends do all the time, too. I would think... considering that if we were going out on a real date, I'd want to take you someplace nice, that we can grab junk food together without that making it a date."

Isabel was laughing at the way he had phrased that. "Okay. Junk food is a go. What else??"

"Well... they're having a Tetris revival fest down at the 'Invaders from Space' arcade... did you ever play that??"

She grinned. "Ohmigawd, that's the game with the little shapes, and trying to drop them in patterns to make complete lines, right? I used to love that game, but I haven't gone near an arcade in years and years..." She broke off, looking intently into Alex's eyes for a moment. "You knew I'd like it, or that I already liked it, didn't you??"

"It seemed up your alley," he explained. "No guns or monsters or messy fighting, just a simple organizational goal and quick reflexes needed. They have some cool variants of it for the festival too, 3-d tetris and quntis -- that's with five square pieces."

"Sounds cool," Isabel agreed. "Well, we have plenty of time, and the arcade can go after dinner, right?"

"Umm, I guess so. Why after, though?"

"Well, umm... I want to swing by my place. Actually, I have something that I wanted to show you -- or play for you... it's one of my mom's old vinyl records, but when she was playing it the other night I thought of you and your band. Is that alright? Bit of a walk up to the Evans estates, but..."

"It sounds great," he assured her. "We can talk on the way."

"Okay." They headed down the main street... and neither of them said anything, and the silence started to become awkward. "Okay, that was a great success," Isabel blurted out.

They both laughed a little. "Well, I guess I'm still a little nervous being around you," Alex said softly. "The butterflies are still there."

"Good," Isabel replied. "I'd hate to think that you'd lost them." They walked a little further, the silence slightly more comfortable. "Oh, I found a library copy of that book you were telling me about a few weeks ago -- Nerilka. Got a few chapters in and I'm really liking it."

"Oh, really?" Alex smiled. "Cool... it's not too confusing getting used to the setting and the rules, starting there?"

"Umm, I don't think so. I just follow Rill, and she explains pretty much everything sooner or later." Isabel laughed. "It's kinda funny actually - I really identify with her, which is weird since the defining factors in her life, pretty much, were a huge family with lots of brothers and sisters, older and younger, and disapproval from her parents. Neither of which apply to me. But the writing is just so good that it sucks me in anyway."

"Good," Alex mentioned. "I hope you're still as impressed by the end."

"Umm, why?"

"Well." He thought about that. "It's the sort of thing that either you like a lot, or not very much." He shrugged. "But I won't say any more about it right now."

"I have to admit, it's kind of weird for me especially, to be reading and picturing what life is like on this totally different planet. Of course, Pern isn't likely to be too much like -- well, you know. But it's nice to think that maybe there are places around like that that aren't too different from earth."

"Yeah, I think I know what you mean."


TO BE CONTINUED...
Last edited by Chrisken on Thu Dec 15, 2005 5:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Read my other roswell stories!

"A man does not make his destiny: he accepts it or denies it. If the Rowan tree's roots are shallow, it bears no crown." From 'the farthest shore', Ursula LeGuin.

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Chrisken
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Post by Chrisken »

Part Three

I sighed, shifted awkwardly on the wooden seat, and smiled at an old couple who were walking past on the sidewalk. They shared a surprised look and shuffled off a little more quickly than they had been walking before, as if they wanted to get away from the creepy young kid as quickly as possible. Oh well.

I'd been waiting here for Tess for, umm, about fifteen minutes, though five of those were my own fault for being early. Still, where the heck was she? I somehow... well, to put it bluntly, I would have expected Tess Harding to be racing and eager to go ahead with this date, not late to meet up with me.

As I looked around at the sparse trees, the suburban quiet was suddenly drowned out by a faraway motor racing and tires screeching slightly on asphalt. Soon enough I could see Tess' car booting it down the street towards me, and she pulled into a parking spot right in front of the bench, braking from such a high speed as to throw herself forward into the steering wheel. I got up slowly and waved a little as she hurried out of the SUV. "S-sorry, so sorry I'm late," she panted.

"Hey, it's okay," I said with a smile, my own slight annoyance about the wait melting in the face of her evident distress about the subject. "I don't mind. Though, I have to admit, I pretty much expected you to show up several minutes early, with bells on, as it were."

"Ummm..." Tess had rushed to a stop, right in front of me, and smiled awkwardly as she took a seat next to me for a moment. "Would you believe that I couldn't figure out what to wear?"

"Umm... if you say so, but that actually brings up, err, another slightly surprising point. Vis-a-vis your wardrobe choice." She had shown up in baggy jeans and a thick off-white sweater, the unmistakeable blond locks of her hair neither as curly as usual nor artificially and severely straight as she sometimes wore it, but loose and kind of casually in-between. "Not... not that I don't like the look actually, but it was definitely not what I've been expecting."

"I think I kinda did that on purpose," she admitted. "Since -- umm, since we talked the other night, a few things have suddenly started to make sense, even things that neither of us mentioned out loud. Kinda got the impression that you, umm, well, that you get uncomfortable about it when I show up somewhere all gussied up and, err, well - really trying to be alluring. Like that you thought the only reason I did that was to try to make an impression on you. I haven't been dressing that way for you -- not since I first got into town, I think... just kinda like to feel pretty. But this time, I decided that I would go casual, because that would probably make it easier for you."

I had started to smile very broadly during that speech, surprised that Tess had been sensitive enough to pick up on my reactions this way. Normally she had seemed very wrapped up in her own world and her preconceptions, so the gesture, as small as it admittedly was, went a long way towards convincing me that I wasn't making a mistake here. "Well, thanks. And, of course, I'll try to be less sensitive to the sexy outfits if you say that they're a personal preference and not some campaign of seduction... I don't have any right to tell you what not to wear. To be honest, one or two of your signature getups really are easy on the eyes, and there's no particular reasons I should get hung up on the implications at this point, considering that I'm dating you and not... well, you know." She laughed at that.

"Okay." Tess nodded. "So, should we head straight to the restaurant, or... I suppose other options include sitting here, walking around, driving somewhere. Err -- any preferences?"

I thought about it. "Driving sounds okay, actually. We don't have to go anywhere in particular I guess, or maybe..." An idea suddenly hit me out of the blue. "Oh, okay, I have an idea. We can swing through the drive-through first to get our food and then go up to Coronado point for a front-seat picnic."

"Umm, alright." Tess smiled shyly. "I, well, I have no idea what or where that is, but it sounds kinda nice, I have to admit."

I laughed, standing up, and giving Tess a hand to pull herself to her feet. She took it. "It's a kind of cliff, about half an hour's drive to the north of town. Not that great a distance from from where we turn off the main highway to get to the chamber, actually, except on the other side. It's a great view, especially by daylight or sunset... not so good at night, because you can't really see town like you can at, erm, at Buckley point, because it's so far away. But not too bad for starwatching I guess." A pause, during which Tess opened her car door. "I'm talking too much, aren't I?"

"No, if I remember correctly that's impossible, considering the point of this exercise." When Tess fell silent, I hurried around to get in on the other side of her car. "To get to know each other better, figure out if we fit, right??" she continued once I was in. "Thus, the more you tell me and I tell you, the better."

I had to smile at the way she had put that as Tess started the ignition and pulled out into the quiet street. It was true enough, on a 'getting to know you' date there was no such thing as talking too much, really, except that my usual social inhibitions were getting in the way, since I'd never really been in this situation before. Tess had never seemed to have social inhibitions the same way, at least not with us. She had a mask that she wore in front of anyone who didn't know her secret, of course, just like I did, but that wasn't quite the same.

We didn't talk that much on the way to the drive-through, but between ordering and getting everything packed somewhere in the car the mood started to relax a little, and by the time Tess was turning north onto the main road that would become the highway, I was telling her old stories about Michael's and my escapades in trying to invent spicier and spicier dishes in my parent's kitchen to feed our inhuman hunger for heat... when we were about, oh, maybe nine years old.

"You'll tell me when I have to turn off, and where, right??" she asked after one particular tale had run it course.

"Yeah, definitely. It's not for a while yet." I took a breath. "So... why don't you tell me something about when you were that young?? It doesn't have to be tattoo-related or even embarassing." She groaned, catching my reference to the humiliation story that she'd told me the night of the dance.

"Okay, well, I'm not sure if this is as good a story as yours, but I'll give it a try. It started when we moved into yet another place, a kinda run-down townhouse in the Conneticut suburbs. I didn't realize it was rundown when I was so young, actually, I thought it was the coolest and best place we'd ever lived, possibly because it was the only one that had a backyard and neighbors and trees to climb and fences and all of that stuff. Well, I'm not quite sure how I got the notion that the yard five places down and across the alley had some incredible alien treasure buried in it, but..."

The story went on for quite a while, full of sneaking around and digging holes and running away from a big angry dog and hiding quietly from nearly-as-angry neighbors and some other things that make up a good childhood story. At the end, she managed to get back home, only to discover that Ed had returned home unexpectedly while she'd been out on her escapade.

"He stared at me for a pretty long time, dirty from all the digging, my hair completely tangled and messed up from hiding in the bushes, clothes a little torn up and me slightly scratched from the dog. I was really worried that I was in big trouble."

"Well yeah, I would have been too," I agreed. "What did he end up saying?"

"'Well, Tess, what have you learned today??'" she quoted in a pretty good imitation of Ed Harding's voice. I laughed at the unexpectedness of it, but there was something a little disquieting about that attitude. Even when she was so young, Ed hadn't been taking the role of the disciplinary figure, lecturing Tess about what she shouldn't do... he was more interested in having her learn to do what she wanted to do well. To be able to sneak around and evade pursuit BETTER the next time, regardless of whether it was right or wrong.

But tonight didn't seem like the best time to bring up that question with Tess, at least not right now. Also, "Okay, well, the turnoff is going to be coming up on our right pretty soon, and it's a little hard to spot, so maybe you should slow down a little. Like down to forty-five maybe, since there's noone behind us at the moment."

"'Kay." Tess smiled as she eased up on the gas.

"So, erm... did you have anything to say to Ed? As far as what you'd learned??"

"Ummm --" Tess thought about that. "Not sure if I can remember. Probably something about thinking it through more carefully before sneaking into places where other people mightn't think I belonged." There was a pause. "I think about it sometimes. What things might have been like if I hadn't grown up living with Ed."

"What do you think?"

"I'd probably have been better off," she admitted. "Not as good with my powers, maybe... he was a good teacher that way. But I think I'd understand you, and people, in general. Don't think Ed was very good with people, even -- you know, his own kind of people. Other shapeshifters or whatever, back home."

"Yeah, you might have a point there," I agreed softly. Prompting her just a little without words. I was interested in what she'd come up with next.

"I have to admit... okay, this may sound kind of silly." She looked over at me a little, and I realized that there was a delicate pink flush on her cheeks. "But I've kinda dreamed up this whole alternate history, with a family that adopted me here in Roswell, and when I'd have met Michael, and you guys, and the whole nine yards." She was about to say something, then shut her mouth and, I think, forced herself to wait for a response from me before continuing.

"Ummm..." I wasn't quite sure what to say offhand. "I hadn't really thought of it in those terms, but that sounds kinda cool." Laughed softly. "What's your imaginary family like?"

"Well, kind of a nontraditional family... because, well, I was kind of a weird kid when I was in the foster care system, and most of the nice childless couples wanted a baby, not a school-age girl who was discovered out in the desert a few years before." She shrugged. "But I was adopted by a single woman... a career type who decided that she wanted to carve some time out of her job for a family. She's pretty cool, really, and her younger brother who hasn't quite got her own life together, and her gay personal assistant, help out, vaguely like unusual father figures."

I had to laugh at that. "Sounds just like the kind of weird thing that would have happened to you if you'd been here, I admit that." After a few seconds, I added: "Sounds a little like that story splits the difference between Isabel's and mine, getting discovered by our parents and having it be nuclear family at first sight, and Michael's, who kinda got the raw end of the foster care system until he was able to strike out on his own."

"Yeah," Tess admitted. "That was probably deliberate on my part. Let's see, what else... I was able to stay in touch with Michael from nearly the beginning on, because they brought us together to see if we recognized each other - similar stories of how we were discovered, similar areas. That would probably have happened to you guys except that I think your parents didn't want you to be involved with social services much once they'd come back and gotten you."

"Yeah," I agreed, smiling. "So you'd have met us once Michael and Isabel found each other in the lunch room, I guess?"

"Yep," she agreed.

"And..." Deep breath again. "Oooh, there's our turn."

"What, right here??" She blinked. "Max, this isn't a road!!"

"When did I say it was?" I chuckled. "Come in - this thing is an SUV. It'll be fine." Tess drove off the highway, onto the relatively flat desert, a kind of rough track that had been made by four-by-fours and other vehicles, (like my Jeep,) heading up to Coronado. "Okay, erm... I feel a little awkward about asking this, but here goes: In this imaginary alternate history, with the four of us having been together for longer... does--" I couldn't quite say it straight out. "Does something different happen between us?"

Tess made a little fearful squeak sound. "Well... maybe. I kind of go back and forth on that - can never seem to make up my mind about it. Sometimes... well, you remember, I assume, all of that stuff right after I came to town, with aries having been in Venus and Michael and Isabel having dreams about each other, and how we got flashes of each other? Sometimes, in the imaginary world, all of that happens earlier, like a little over a year earlier, the time BEFORE that that venus would have been in the right position. And, none of us know what it means or why we're having dreams and flashes, but we start dating anyway. Before you save Liz's life or we meet Maria and Alex, and so on. But..." Tess frowned as she drove the car slowly onwards. "But even then, you *do* heal Liz... the shooting happens pretty much the same as it did in real life, except that I think I'm the one you were with at the Crashdown that day instead of Michael. And everything becomes complicated at that point, and I'm not sure how it ends."

"Sounds like this imaginary life stuff is more trouble than I realized," I said with a small chuckle that was hopefully disarming. "It isn't just a straight wish-fufillment fantasy, which somehow makes it more intriguing." Pause. "But, well... maybe we should be changing the subject back to real life. Things have been complicated enough there, too, but I don't regret any of it, really, or where it's brought us too."

"Glad to hear it," Tess agreed. "So, umm, any idea how long it'll be before we're at the peak? The sun's starting to get low, and I am *hungry*!"

I laughed in response. "Maybe ten minutes, I think."

==========

"Knock-knock-knock." There was a distinct rapping sound as the speaker suited action to word.

Michael smiled as he got up from the chair and opened his apartment door. The figure standing beyond, short-ish and slender and curvy and with wavy brown hair falling to her shoulders, was no surprise to him at all of course; he'd recognized the voice. "Maria. What happened to your surprise thingee?" Michael did a slight double-take. "You're not surprising me right now, are you??"

"Well, technically I suppose, especially since you don't seem to have expected that I might come by," Maria allowed. "But me being here is not connected at all with *the* surprise -- I'm done with that for the day, there wasn't quite as much to do for it as I expected. Hope you don't mind that I dropped by, and can I come in?" Michael laughed as Maria shone off a two-hundred watt smile, and wondered if she knew she was doing it. Planning it as a deliberate tactic to melt him seemed very much like overkill.

"Of course I don't mind, and since when have you ever needed to ask?" he murmured, stepping very deliberately back to allow her to come in, though she could have stepped through anyways. "I don't suppose there's any chance you'd tell me more about the surprise if I asked."

"Nope, not one in a million," she chirped, coming in. "As far as asking... well, I'm feeling, erm -- courtly today, or something like that." At that point Maria had gotten far enough into the apartment to see the meal that Michael had been in the middle of when she knocked. "Ooooh, pizza!! Can I get a few slices? I'm STARVING."

"Help yourself," he said. "Got an extra-large pie, so there's plenty to go around. Sausage and mushroom... you're good with that, right?"

"Definitely!!" Quickly they settled down on the loveseat with the pizza box on the coffee table in front of them, and Michael got her a bottle of iced tea. "Well, since we can't talk about the surprise, what should we talk about while we eat? Oh, how was playing video games with Max?" She arched her eyebrow meaningfully with the question.

Michael saw the point and paused a bit before replying. "It was fun, until he had to leave."

"Oh? And what did he have to go and do?"

"Well, since you asked, I got the idea that he was picking Tess up for dinner or something like that." Munch, munch, sip. "Were you fishing for that?"

"I guess I was, in a sense, though I'd have been happier if it wasn't there to be caught, or something like that." Maria sighed.

"Give my boy a break. He's... I know it's kind of weird for all of us, but maybe he and Tess do really have a shot at something real. If so, I wish them the best of luck finding it."

"It's just... this isn't the way it's supposed to be," Maria grumped. "Liz is being so stupid about the whole thing, but she's *meant* to be with Max. Really. Absolute soulmates. And he's meant to be with her, even if the way she's been pushing him away, I'm not surprised that he can't see it anymore."

"Wow." Michael took a moment to think about it. "But you think that you can see something that they can't?"

"Okay, it's a little presumptuous, I admit," she allowed. "But I have a little distance from the situation that neither of them do, and probably know more about their relationship than anybody in the world except Liz." Michael's eyebrows raised. "It's a long story, that I can't really tell you, because it's secret."

"I do think you're kind of invested in their relationship," Michael protested. "Not that that's a bad thing. But you're hardly a disinterested observer."

"Maybe not... and I guess I don't really want to get into a big thing about this right now," Maria said, taking a bite of pizza. "Oh, is it alright if I tell you about what happened to Pam Troy in health class today?"

"Yeah, okay. Especially if I can turn the TV on mute, just to check a few scores."

Maria sighed, and then nodded at him, unable to hold back a smile.

==========

"Popcorn chicken, home fries, and diet cokes?" Isabel asked. "Is that junky enough??"

"Nah," Alex teased her. "To get to real junk food status, you have to go all the way. The chicken is fine, but REAL french fries, none of this 'home' nonsense. And genuine cokes loaded with sugar."

Isabel looked from the menu boards to him, and back and forth once more. "Are... are you serious??"

"No, not really," Alex laughed. "Well, maybe about thirty percent. The classic fries and the genuine coke ARE junkier, and I'm going to get them both for myself. You can please yourself though... I mean, heck, we don't even have a table. That pretty much means that this isn't a dinner date."

"Hmm." Isabel filed that detail away for future reference. "Well, I'll meet you halfway and forego the diet coke I think. Love the home fries though, and I don't think I'm gonna give them up without a fight." Alex smiled widely at that solution to the question.

"Gotta admit, you've got good reflexes and a pretty good strategic mind, for tetris anyway," he told her. "Ever really played any other video games??"

"Ehh, not really. I've tried some of Max's... a lot of them just seem so violent though. Shooting the bad guys and hitting them and jumping on their heads and what-all-ever."

"Maybe you just haven't tried the right games," Alex suggested. "I know some good ones that might be worth a try for you... car racing, and puzzle games where you just have to avoid traps and collect treasures, not fight anybody."

"That sounds..." Isabel started, and Alex could tell by the expression on her face that she was about to agree. Which was good, because the guy in the apron called out 'next' and they had to step up to the counter and give their orders.

Once the food and money had been exchanged, Alex and Isabel left 'Frank's chicken and other fried things,' a little takeout-only junk food joint sitting in the south side of downtown Roswell. Isabel quickly started looking for somewhere that they could lean back and open up their food.

"How about, erm, over there??" Alex suggested, pointing out a four-and-half-foot brick wall on the edge of a second-hand bookstore's property. Alex was a well-known regular at 'Galactic used books,' so nobody there was at all likely to chase him off for inoffensively loitering around the property. Isabel might have known or guessed part of that story, because she smiled and didn't say anything as Alex led the way over to that wall.

"Okay, erm..." Isabel had snatched two home fries and devoured them while extracting the rest of the waxed paper bagful from her larger bag of food. "Umm, I think we kinda need a new topic here. Any ideas?"

"Hmmm." Alex considered that. "Well, I'm not generally one to gossip, but out of curiosity, have you heard the latest chapter in the Liz/Max/Tess saga??"

"Umm... no, I guess I haven't, if it isn't that Max and Liz had a big fight at the prom and Tess ditched Kyle. Which I'm guessing if that was the latest, you wouldn't ask if I'd heard about it, since you were standing right next to me when I did."

"Yeah, there's more," Alex admitted. "Max and Tess kissed outside the dance... Liz practically walked in on them and he didn't even notice. Liz is a little upset about the whole thing, and she blames herself, which is the worst part maybe."

"Oh," Isabel sighed. "That's a shame. Liz and Max made a good couple, really. Somehow it seems like this may be the end for them."

"Yeah, maybe," Alex mumbled uncertainly.

"Okay, I don't want to talk about that, it'd just bum me out," Isabel decided. "Tell me a story, Alex." She popped a few little pieces of chicken into her mouth.

"Uh... whaa?" Alex shook his head. "What kind of story?"

"Any kind at all, as long as it isn't true." Isabel giggled for about a second. "Some book that you've read that you don't think I would have, or off the top of your very imaginative brain. Come on, you must be able to come up with something."

"Okay, erm... let's see. Once upon a time, there lived a carpenter in a cozy little shack on the edge of a wide grassy plain, so big that you couldn't see the other edge of it even if you sat up on the roof of the shack."

"The carpenter had a dear wife, and four children, two sons and two daughters, and his kids LOVED to climb up to the roof of the shack and sit up there daydreaming, no matter how often their mother made them climb down because they'd make the very falls fall down around her one of these days, and besides they hadn't finished their chores for the day yet. There were always chores to do..."

"What kind of chores did the kids have?" Isabel asked, grinning.

"I was just getting to that part," Alex told her. "The two girls had to help their mother, working in the kitchen, and keeping the shack clean, and weeding in the little vegetable garden. And the boys had to help their father's clients and so on... carrying the chairs and, um, other furniture that he built, and picking up the wood that he bought to work with. They were important chores, I guess, but hard work, and so I'm not surprised that the kids started to get tired of it..."

"Neither am I," Isabel agreed. "Why didn't a carpenter live in the forest? Easier to get wood that way."

"Well, erm... that's a very good question I guess," Alex allowed. "He wasn't too far from the nearest forest, actually. You see..."

==========

"Can I help... oh, okay it's you." Liz sighed. And then smiled, just slightly, at Sean DeLuca. "Take yer order??"

Sean smiled back, the change from 'can I help you' to a more casual formula not lost on him, though he wasn't quite sure how to take it. "How about a Will smith, galaxy fries, and a mercury milkshake??"

"It'll be a few minutes."

"Alright. Something bugging you, Parker?"

"Stop that," she shot back almost instantly. "Just calling me 'Parker.' I can't do it back to you, because you're not the only DeLuca I know, so you have to stop it."

"Umm... alright, sure," Sean muttered, blinking. In his surprise he didn't even challenge Liz's logic. "Liz. Is that the only thing that crawled up your back??"

Liz laughed slightly. "No, but I really don't want to talk about it."

"That 'sokay. When are you off shift?"

"In, erm, about three quarters of an hour, actually." Now Liz seemed to allow a reluctant twinkle into her eye. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, we could go do something. Probably not bowling again."

"Nah, not again," Liz agreed. "Plus, it's always crowded on monday nights, right?"

"Yeah, that's league night," Sean agreed.

"Well, umm, let me put your order in first," she said, and hurried over to do that, and then she had somebody else's meal to deliver, and some money to collect and ring up at the register. It was a few minutes before she got back to Sean's table.

"We could catch a movie I think," he suggested. "I mean, if you'd like to."

"Yeah, that sounds good actually," she said with a smile. "Any idea what's playing that's good?"

"Not a clue," Sean admitted. "I always just kinda show up and see what my options are."

"Yeah, I noticed," Liz joked. "But what about the movie?" Sean laughed.

Sean dawdled over his food, once it arrived, so that he had just finished paying and getting his change when Liz was able to clock out. She hurried upstairs to change quickly out of her waitress uniform and met him back down in the dining room.

"Let's just walk," she suggested. "The Western theater isn't too far."

"Alright," Sean agreed, and they headed out into the early evening. "So, umm... okay, apparently I got nothin'."

Liz laughed softly. "I have something that I should probably say, more in the vein of a factual announcement than an invitation. But Max Evans is *definitely* not keeping me off the market anymore."

Sean took a few moments to weigh that. "Yeah, somehow I kinda got that impression when you showed up back at the bowling alley well before your prom would have finished."

"Yeah, I kinda thought it was over then," Liz agreed. "Today, there's just no doubt."

"He told you that he's hooking up with someone else?" Sean blurted out, then shook his head in the universal gesture of frustration at self-stupidity. "Forget that I said that."

"But I can't," Liz breathed. "And, well... some of the details are far from black and white - big surprise, but that's the core of it, yeah." She took a deep breath, and walked on in silence for a little while. "He said that it wouldn't have happened if I hadn't been pushing him away for so long, and maybe he's right."

"Hmmm..." Sean considered. "Not sure that I'm really in a position to comment on that. I've seen you keeping Max at a distance, but I've also seen you giving him some positive signals. Then again, I don't think I've seen all of what Max has seen, so I won't second-guess him. On the other hand, it's kind of glaringly obvious that you still have strong feelings for him, so unless he's completely clueless he knows it too. I hope he wasn't too harsh about cutting you loose."

Liz thought about that. "No, not really. Firm and definite, but not cruel. That's probably the best way. It hurt, but that wasn't his fault." She sighed. "So, if it's glaringly obvious that I still have strong feelings for Max, why have you been hitting on me for like three months straight??"

Sean laughed. "Strong feelings doesn't mean that you're off limits. I thought I liked my chances... still do." He made a funny grin face at her.

"Well, you might have a point there," Liz muttered. "Oooh, here we are. Hey!!" She hurried over to the edge of the sidewalk to get the best possible early look at the movie theater sign. "Ohhh, come on, we have GOT to see Pearl Harbour!"

"Hmmm..." Sean considered that for a moment. "Yeah, I think you could convince me there."

"Convince, nothing," Liz laughed. "You're coming." And she headed over to the box office window. Sean shrugged and followed.

==========

"I had a gr... well, a good time," Tess said as we were driving back into town. "Not... not quite like what I always pictured my first date with you would be like, which I guess is a good thing in a way. Life never matches up with our dreams I guess, does it?"

"No, it really doesn't," I agreed. "Umm... this may sound like an odd thing, but I wanted to ask you about... err, not quite sure how to put it. Umm, about right and wrong??" I groaned to myself at just how incredibly stupid.

"Ohhh." Tess had to think about that for a moment. "What about, err, about right and wrong?"

"Ehhh..." I just couldn't think of anything to say.

"You... this is about the stuff I was talking about earlier, with Ed?" she asked, and I kind of grunted an agreement. "You think that Ed didn't really understand right and wrong, just his mission, and you're a little worried about me, because I grew up with him?"

"Kind of," I mumbled. "Sounds weird, but, well, I couldn't stand to go ahead with this without asking you what you think about this stuff. There's been times since I've known you where you kind of showed a bit of that same tunnel vision that he did. A lack of... understanding, of the moral dimension of a situation, only seeing the implications for yourself, or for the four of us."

"Hmmm." Tess had to think about that. "Yeah, that's fair. But I'd like to think that I haven't been acting like that for a long time -- not since we went to New York together, at least. Seeing Rath and Lonnie, what they were capable of -- that was a huge eye-opener for me. I don't want to be like them, not at all, and that's something that I associate with the two of them now. Total self-interest, not caring about anything else, least of all human lives." She sighed, and continued after a long moment of silence.

"So, there's my assertion for you. I understand right and wrong, at least the basics, and I'll do my best to navigate through the trickier aspects of morality without falling. If there's something that's getting too tough for me to figure out or too tempting for me to reject out of hand, I'll probably come straight to you for advice, because you're sort of better at this kind of thing than me. But what I say isn't really that important, in this kind of thing, is it?? You kind of have to watch what I do, and I'll prove that you can trust me to do the right thing, or not, that way. Right??"

I laughed softly. "Yeah, and come to think of it, there's some trust that you've earned already that I haven't really given credit you for. I'm sorry."

"It's okay."

Tess dropped me off at the curb about a house away from my place, and she got out of the car too. "So, erm..."

"Good night, Tess." I stepped in and hugged her, and then let go. Smiled a little awkwardly.

"No good-night kiss this time?" she asked, a little disappointed.

Thought about it for just a second, and then chuckled. "You want one, come and get it!" Tess rushed up to me and tenderly brought my head down to meet hers. Tess' lips were smooth and seemed just slightly sweet, and something clicked deep in my mind. This was starting to feel right... not maybe, not wait-and-see, but *right.*

I smiled down at her. "Tomorrow morning. How 'bout I pick you up this time, and we can grab some breakfast before school."

She smiled that tiny little smile, that I'm convinced she couldn't ever know just how cute it looks. "I can hardly wait."

"See you at 7:30, then?" Tess nodded, and I squeezed her upper arm gently before turning and heading for my front door.

TO BE CONTINUED...
Read my other roswell stories!

"A man does not make his destiny: he accepts it or denies it. If the Rowan tree's roots are shallow, it bears no crown." From 'the farthest shore', Ursula LeGuin.

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Chrisken
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Post by Chrisken »

Part Four

"Well, congrats Isabel," Maria said, laughing. "I'm glad that you and Alex are back together, for real."

"Hear, hear," Liz chimed in. Six of them had gathered together in the Crashdown cafe, (pulling two small tables together,) before going together to the Beth Orton concert. Alex told Liz and Maria how he'd gotten tickets for himself and Isabel, and Sean found out from Liz and got the two of them tickets, and Maria and Kyle had decided to join in and make it a group thing. (Michael had an interview for a second job, which was a long story in itself, so he couldn't make the show.) "Go Isabel!"

Isabel smiled modestly, saying nothing, while Alex was sporting his trademark grin. "When she came up and rang my doorbell, wearing her tightest black leather pants and that plunging little red top... well, I knew it was the beginning of the end for my resolve back then." Several of the others laughed.

"Frankly I'm not sure I understand why you were playing hard to get, Whitman," Sean added. "Okay, so things ended badly last time, but you were pretty young then, really, and everybody has to be allowed some mistakes. Don't let fear of the heartbreak keep you from living - that's what I say."

"Yeah, that's actually good advice I guess," Alex said, and planted a big kiss on the side of Isabel's face. Liz laughed.

"Hey, can someone pass down the saturn rings?" Kyle asked. They had bought a bunch of different stuff all together in an attempt to have the meal holiday-family-dinner style, instead of each person having their own meal on their own plate. Isabel picked up a box with several rings still in it and handed it along.

"So, come on, Maria," Liz protested. "When are you going to let this darn surprise out of the box. It's been more than a week and a half now!" Alex smiled slightly... out of the usual group, he and Isabel were still the only ones that Maria had taken into her counsels about the holiday getaway that she'd been planning.

"Probably tomorrow, in the quad. Everybody be there, including you Sean," Maria decided. "Since it's the first day of final exams and all, might as well. I'll pass the word, make sure that Michael, Max, and she-who-shall-not-be-named are there." Liz shook her head slightly. She'd been trying to accept the fact of Max and Tess being a couple now and move on, and Maria constantly spouting venom wasn't really helping. Maybe she'd have to find some way to ask her to tone it down.

Isabel was just happy that there hadn't been an alien danger crisis in so long.

==========

"Hi everyone, thanks for coming," Maria said as she got to the table in the quad that everyone else seemed to have gathered around. "Hope you don't mind all the secrecy, but..."

"Laurie!!" Michael exclaimed, instantly recognizing the girl who was standing next to Maria. "What are you doing here in Roswell?"

"Being careful, Michael, and coming to visit." Laurie hurried over to hug Michael hello. "And, conspiring with her, and Alex, and Isabel, to pull off something that I hope you'll all like. I agree with her that we could all do with a nice break, after everything that you've been through this past year, and more."

"Umm... a break?" Max asked tersely.

"That's my cue, I guess," Maria said, smiling with nervousness, but also eager anticipation. "The end of school term is right around the corner, last summer before our senior year and then graduation. Pack your bags, kids, because we're all booked for fifteen days and fourteen nights on the beautiful beaches of Cape Santa Maria in THE BAHAMAS!! Whooh!"

"Whoa, seriously??" Kyle asked. "How the heck are we going to... ohhh!!" He turned to face Maria, a distant memory clicking into place. "Since Michael said that you were filthy rich now, can I assume that... erm, I mean, is there any chance that you're volunteering to..."

"Yeah, it's all on me," Laurie agreed. "Air fare, the resort and all. After all, well... some of you guys kinda saved my life, and if it weren't for Michael and Maria, then Grampa's money would still be in the hands of my evil aunt and uncle, and I'd be back in a mental hospital or worse. So, it seems like the least I can do, or at any rate fair, to..."

"Eeech!" Liz breathed softly, cutting Laurie off, because an odd thoughtful expression was crossing over Sean's face. Sean hadn't heard most of the Laurie stuff at the time, and she wanted to figure out the right way to explain it to him. Laurie smiled feebly, nodding slightly at Liz.

"Okay, erm... getting back to the major point," Max said. "It's a great idea, Maria, and thanks for thinking of it. There are a few details that'll need to get worked out, to explain the whole thing to our parents... we can't exactly take off and leave the country without their permission for something like this -- though I suppose you've probably been thinking of that already."

"Little bit, brother mine," Isabel agreed. "First off, as far as explaining the situation, we can go with the essential truth. Laurie and Michael are family... it might not be clear entirely how close, but they're related and she wants to do something really nice for him and his friends, with the money she inherited."

"Also, we shouldn't have too much trouble getting Kyle's dad and Maria's mom to come along, as group leaders and chaperones," Alex added. There were a couple of inarticulate sounds in response to that.

"Yeah, like they're fit chaperones for anybody," Kyle muttered under his breath. "Which might work out well for you guys, I guess."

"Sounds do-able," Liz decided finally. "Thanks from me, err, us, too. How soon would we be leaving for all of this?"

"About a week and a half," Maria told her. "Two days after finals are over and school's out. That should be enough time to get packed and sort everything else out with your parents, places of work, etcetera -- I hope."

"Umm... alright, thanks so much -- Maria, Laurie... Isabel, Alex," Tess said, nodding her head at each of the conspirators in turn. "This is just unbelievably generous."

"Aww, it wasn't that expensive," Laurie put in. "My aunt knew someone at this place who was able to cut me a discount. June is the off-season everywhere in the Carribean, after all."

"Yeah," Alex agreed. "Winter is when most people have to get away to a tropical beach... though most of them probably don't live in a subtropical desert to start with."

"Okay, erm... any more questions?" Maria asked.

"Yeah, kinda," Michael said. "Laurie, are you going to be staying here in Roswell until we leave?"

"Actually, no." Laurie sighed. "I wanted to be here when Maria told all you guys, but I have a few appointments to keep back in Tucson. I'll be back around the time that your finals are over, though."

"Speaking of which," Max put in, "I have my English lit exam in about twenty minutes, so I think I'm gonna say goodbye right now. Umm, Laurie, when are you heading back to Tucson?"

"Tomorrow morning. Figured it'd be cool to grab dinner with some of you tonight."

"I'll be there."

Most of the meeting broke up then, except that Laurie, Kyle, Liz, Sean, and Michael hung around and talked. Because of the way the finals schedule had been drawn up, Kyle, Michael, and Liz didn't have any tests to worry about until midmorning or that afternoon.

==========

I smiled at Tess as she followed me to my locker. "Well... the bahamas. Have to give Maria credit, that's a pretty great surprise. And Laurie too. Should be fun."

"Yeah," Tess agreed, and giggled softly. I worked the combination and then looked at her. "I don't think you've ever seen me in a bikini, have you?" I'm not quite sure what my expression was in that moment, but it made her break out laughing.

"Umm, no, I haven't." I'd kinduv avoided that last summer actually... I knew that Isabel spent a lot of time down at the community pool with Tess, and she tried to get me to come along, but I was still very upset about the way that Liz had run away from me and left town for the summer, so I didn't want to see Tess in a skimpy little swimsuit, lest it throw my resolve to avoid her and work things out with Liz into question. (I mean, it was pretty obvious that Tess had a good body, and I felt a physical attraction to her pretty much from the beginning. And I have to admit I'd guiltily pictured how she'd look in the bikini that summer.) Complicating the situation a little was that I'd been hanging around with Maria a lot back then, and she'd also go to the pool occasionally, and then would rant and spit a little venom about how much of a hussy and floozie Tess was in front of me.

"And, as far as that goes, I haven't seen you in a swimsuit either," Tess continued after a moment. "Something to look forward to, huh?"

"Yeah, actually." Almost all of the guilt in the back of my mind about dating Tess had gone by now -- I was happier with her than I'd been in nearly a year, and that was something that I wasn't going to feel ashamed of. Liz seemed to have accepted what had happened and started the process of putting it behind her. I knew that she was getting more serious with Sean, and that seemed to be good. Sean was an alright guy, no matter what mistakes from his past had landed him in trouble, and I wasn't sure if his relationship with Liz was the real thing or just a rebound affair, but I kind of didn't have a say in that now.

I still felt a little bit... wistful, wishing that Liz and I could have worked things out and given the soulmate thing another try, but apparently that wasn't the way things were going to work out. "Okay, so... umm... which of Gloucestor's sons is legitimate and which one is the bastard??"

Tess grinned. "Are you drilling me or did you forget, sweetie?"

I laughed. "Last-minute practice."

"Okay, then... Edgar is the legitimate one, because there's a g in edgar and legitimate. Same position too. That's how I remember it. Edmund is the bastard."

"Okay, your turn for a drill question."

"Hmmm... in what was was the work of Joseph Conrad considered inflammatory?"

"Hey, you can't ask practice questions like that," I protested as we headed up the stage. "That's an essay question, and a doozy. Drill is supposed to be quick back-and-forth, like flash card stuff almost."

"Hey, you don't need any help on the short answers," Tess replied, "and I'm not just here to boost your confidence. Allowance will be given for the fact that it's hard to organize a good essay question answer in your head, but this is where you need the practice bud."

"Okay, umm... gimme a moment then." I sighed.

==========

"Hey there," Isabel said, spotting a familiar face a little way from the school doors. "Hey, this is maybe a stupid time to think of it, but aren't you under a restraining order thingee that says you can't be here? I can't believe I forgot about that when Maria was planning the morning meeting thing."

"You heard about that, huh?" Sean asked. "Actually, no. I brought a bunch of good character references to my last probation review hearing, and the distance to steer clear of the school got taken off, which is a good thing. How're you??"

"Not bad," Isabel said. "Alex has computer club, so I guess I have some time to kill before the big dinner with Laurie. How about you -- waiting for Liz I assume?"

"What else??" Sean thought for a while. "Has anyone ever told you that you and your friends are very weird, and often incredibly lucky??"

Isabel was thrown for a moment. "The weird part, actually. Lucky... umm, I think we might differ, though I'll grant that it might seem that way to an observer."

"Alright, I'll grant that. I don't know that much about what your problems look like." Sean didn't push the issue hard.

"So, how are things between you and Liz?" Isabel asked. "Generally. You can't blame me for being curious under the circumstances."

"The circumstances," Sean repeated casually. "You mean, that you're vaguely friends with Liz and with my cousin Maria, and your brother is Liz's ex."

"Yeah, that," Isabel nodded. "And my boyfriend Alex has dropped hints that you used to pick on him, though he's not the kind to hold a grudge really."

"Probably true enough," Sean admitted vaguely. "Well, I think that things are going okay between Liz and I, though she's taking things a little slow. Doesn't want to rush into a rebound fling, which I guess is good."

"So, you're looking for more than a fling?" Isabel asked teasingly.

"I guess so." Sean admitted. "I really do like Liz. It would kinduv be very stupid for me to be picking Liz out for a short fling under the circumstances, since I'm only just out of juvie, trying to stay out of trouble, and older than her..."

"Ohhh," Isabel said, nodding. "You mean that she still isn't *legal*." She giggled softly.

"It's not really a fit subject for fun," Sean put in. "Not that we've really gotten close to that point, of course, but yeah. Umm, can you stop laughing and maybe get us a new topic, please??"

"Alright, alright... except that I can't really think of anything else to talk about," Isabel sighed.

"How did your exam go? You had at least one final today, right??"

"Yeah, actually. AP math first thing in the morning, went alright I guess, at least it's over." Isabel sighed. "Spent most of the rest of the day studying for sociology in the library. Each test I take, a little closer to actually graduating."

"Well yeah, I guess," Sean mumbled. Isabel thought a moment, realized that he hadn't realized quite what she meant, and was wondering whether to go into more detail when...

"Hi b... uhm, guys." Isabel turned around to see Liz hurrying towards them. "Isabel??" The word was clearly a question.

"Just passing an idle moment talking," Isabel blurted out. "No need to worry that I'm going after your guy... Alex is quite enough man for me." Liz giggled and hugged Sean hello.

"Well, umm, I guess I'll leave you too alone."

"No, come on," Liz insisted. "We've got no big plans, I wouldn't mind the company. Is that okay Sean?" Sean smiled a little and nodded. "How about we hit the secondhand bookstore on eighth street??"

"Umm, sounds alright to me," Sean said, and Isabel nodded.

==========

"He actually asked me for money to go buy a cheeseburger," Maria said. She, Laurie, Michael, Max, Isabel and Jim Valenti were all sitting around Michael's living room, catching up. "Said he was still hungry after the lobster. So I gave him the money and he walked away, and I started stewing. All of a sudden there was a drum roll, and everybody looked up on stage, right??" She waited for a confirming nod from Michael before continuing.

"And there was Michael, standing in the spotlight, looking very handsome in his fancy duds I have to say, and tells everybody there that they're going to see a dream come true. And he invites me up on stage, well, he called me Margarita of course, after that ridiculous fake ID he gave me. And the band struck up a tune, so I started to sing."

"Tess dragged Kyle off onto the dance floor," Michael remembered out loud. "And that's about when you two dragged yourselves back in, right guys?" The question was directed at Max and Isabel.

"Yeah, and I went over to talk to Alex and ended up asking *him* to dance," Isabel said. "Max came up to the table to confab with Liz right away."

"And as soon as we were done in the banquet room, and came back up to the suite, Jim was waiting for us all," Michael explained. "Holding the 'Guerin party' sign from the limo back in Roswell. Really read us the riot act about ditching school, taking off without telling him where we were going, or our parents, all of that stuff."

"Yeah," Jim agreed. "Though I have to say, somehow hearing about the whole thing from Maria's perspective kinda makes me wish I hadn't been quite a hardass about it. Was still stupid the way you handled some of the details, but I can't quite work up as much righteous indignation about the whole thing."

"I would almost say that you should have called me and told me to meet you at the Las Vegas airport," Laurie said. "Except that Michael was alread upset about his little trip with Michael snowballing out of control, and maybe it's good that it was just the eight of you who'd been through so much."

"I wouldn't have minded at all if you'd been there," Michael insisted. "Sis. Yeah, things kinda blew up from my original plan, but I really do want to get to know you better. But I guess this Bahamas trip will give us a chance."

"Really, none of us thought of calling you," Maria insisted. "I probably should have, but there was a lot of stuff to be organized in such a short time, and I was focused on trying to persuade Alex and Liz to come along, not new friends who were considerably more distant."

"Well, it's getting pretty late," Jim put in, "and I should be getting back home. I think the same goes for you too, well, Maria, Isabel, and Max at least."

"Yep," Max replied. "We'll be off in just a minute. Laurie, where are you staying the night??"

"I was gonna get a hotel room," she said, "but Michael insisted on having me crash right here," she patted the sofa in the living room. "Looks comfy enough, especially compared with some places I've been laid out." There were a few weak, awkward laughs at this.

"Okay, well, have a safe trip tomorrow morning," Maria said. "Can't wait for you to get back here."

"Alright," Laurie agreed. "Good luck on the exams, all of you!"

"Thank you," Isabel said.

"Have you talked to your parents about the trip yet?" Jim asked Max and Isabel as they headed out to their cars.

"Yeah, pretty quickly," Max said.

"Any notion how they're taking to the idea??"

"No real trouble, I think... they asked about chaperones and if Brody would be upset that I was taking so much time away from the center," Max explained. "He hasn't really had much for me to do lately anyway."

"I somehow suspect that our biggest problem might be what to do if they decide that they want to come along for the trip," Isabel put in with a soft chuckle.

"Well, alright," Jim said. "Keep me in the loop, okay?"

"Sure."

============

"So... got any other surprises locked up inside that pretty head of yours?"

Maria looked up, and her mouth dropped open slightly. "Didn't think you'd come in here looking for you. I'm not sure I've even seen you NEAR the school library before."

Michael chuckled quietly, and stepped towards the table that Maria had half filled with various books, papers, and other stuff. "I'm not sure if I've ever been here before, but it seemed like a pretty obvious place to look during finals season. How's it all going??"

"Ehh... not great, but not too bad," Maria allowed. "I think I'll probably make a B. C plus, worst comes to worst."

Michael smiled, pulled up a chair, and just sat down across from her without saying anything. "Hey, what time is it, anyway??"

"Umm... quarter to nine. You don't have a 9 am test, do you?"

"Nah, it's ten thirty," Maria told him. "You??"

"Nothing until quarter to one, which seems like a really stupid time to schedule an exam," Michael pointed out, "but oh well. So, any idea what you need to pack and get ready before we head off to the tropical beach? You three are probably a bit ahead of the rest of us."

"Not really," Maria admitted. "I didn't want to go shopping much in case I ran into you or Liz, or who knows who, and you started to put things together. Plus, well, there was the fact that I didn't really have much money to shop with, after the prom stuff."

"Oh," Michael muttered, blinking in surprise. "Yeah, you had to pay for your ticket, and your dress, and... and... you didn't get a limo or a fancy dinner or anything, did you??"

"No, no," Maria shook her head. "No dinner, and I drove you home after the dance, remember? In my mom's car."

"Oh, right... sorry." Michael shrugged. "It's still early in the morning. Well, the dress you'd have paid for even if I wasn't being a complete jerk... I could pay you back for your ticket though."

"Nah, it's okay, I don't mind that we basically went dutch," Maria assured him. "And I'm doing okay for money, now that my allowance and Crashdown paycheque have come in. Shopping before we leave for the Gulf Sun is definitely a necessity."

"Cool," Michael laughed. "Speaking of sun shopping actually... well, I kinda overheard Max and Tess teasing each other about swimsuits. Well, walked in on them, more like."

Maria rolled her eyes at the mention of Tess. "Oh, lordy." And then she looked at Michael, and smirked. "Are you hoping that I'll bring some barely-there thong string outfit that you can drool over?? Or hoping that I *don't*, because it'd bug you for other guys to see me like that??"

"Umm... well, kind of a little bit each way, but mostly I respect that I don't get a vote in what you want to wear," Michael said, joking. "I'm sure that whatever you choose to take, whether it's new or not... I'd love to see it."

"Yeah, I bet," Maria said with a soft sigh, and then a chuckle. Then she looked at Michael, who had an odd expression on his face. "What is it??"

"I'm, err, well, I was trying to think if I'd actually seen you in a swimsuit -- or if I'd just imagined it somewhere along the way."

Maria laughed softly. "I think you did see it - just once I think, baby. Think back, last year, near the end of April. The hot spell, down by the creek in Frazier woods??"

"Oh, right..." Michael whispered. The vague picture in his mind snapped into sharp focus.

===========

'Hot spell' didn't really cover it. It was the third day in a row that the mercury had gone higher than a hundred ten, and Michael's apartment didn't have air conditioning. (He'd been hoping to save up for one, but having to pay the rent and get groceries was still putting a dent in all of his efforts to scrape up any savings. Working in the kitchen of a restaurant wasn't helping, it seemed to be the only place in town that was actually hotter inside than outside, and there didn't seem to be anything Michael could do when he was off work to beat the heat. The community pool was jam-packed and noisy and got on his nerves, he felt silly wandering around in the air-conditioned mall not buying anything, and even spending time at Max and Isabel's house was weird now. Isabel was either avoiding him or watching him out of the corner of her eye as if she expected him to jump on her and rip off her clothes, and Michael and Max had gotten into a huge argument about 'the evil alien issue' and weren't really on speaking terms.

Finally, Michael remembered something that might fit. A long time ago, back when things were good, Maria had mentioned a creek that she and Liz used to go to to cool off when it was hot in the summer years and years ago, in Frazier woods. Michael hadn't been sure exactly where he could find it, but he got on his motorbike and headed west out of town, towards the woods.

It was a long drive through the desert first, and though occasionally the burst of wind as he raced down the highway was refreshing, most of the time the air was just as hot and just as sticky as ever, and coming at him the harder for all his speed. Once he got among the trees, things got a little better. He couldn't ride the bike fast on the forest trails even if he wanted to, but the intense sunlight was blocked off by heavy clouds of leaves, and the air seemed somehow less than scorchingly hot, though it was still incredibly warm and muggy. Michael spent what seemed a long time up and down those trails looking for... for a suitable swimming spot, he quickly decided. No need to worry about discovering Maria's particular creek; that seemed to be clear.

He found a lazy stream flowing through the woods, but it took him to find a good spot to approach it without having to dive through yards of underbrush, or wasn't too shallow and swift, or too overgrown with roots and reeds. Once he finally found what seemed like the perfect spot... he groaned, realizing that someone else was already in the water there.

Michael stood still for a moment, then crept closer for a better look, wondering just how ironic today was going to be for him.

At first he couldn't make out much but a pair of shapely, womanish legs, because the rest of their owner was under the water. Diving? The creek wasn't as shallow here as it was in other places, but it couldn't be deep enough for diving, could it? No, she wasn't diving in the usual sense, just ducking her upper body beneath the surface, possibly exploring the creek floor.

And then the legs twisted and went under the surface. Next a head and a face emerged, and Maria recognized them both instantly, even though he hadn't seen Maria in week, and he'd never seen her dripping wet like this.

Her light brown hair was a little tangled and plastered to her head, of course, and it looked a little longer than Michael remembered, so presumably she'd kept on letting it grow out. As Michael just stood there watching her, Maria's shoulders and upper torso followed her head out of the water, and then she stood up and stepped a few paces closer to the shore where Michael was, stopping where the creek went up just a little past her waist.

Michael wondered if he should say something at this poin, but he wasn't sure if he was capable of being coherent. No matter how badly thing had been left between them, (maybe even BECAUSE of all that,) seeing Maria even in the plainest clothes and situations had a dramatic impact on him. Maria dripping wet on a hot day, wearing a black halter-ey swimsuit top, (not especially revealing, but it left little doubt as to how good her figure was,) had almost literally struck Michael speechless. And then his thoughts started to wander even further into dangerous territory... he couldn't see her swimsuit bottoms like this, but considering how much bare leg he'd seen before realizing it was Maria, they had to be equally revea--

"How the heck did you find me here, Spaceboy?" Maria said out loud. Obviously she wasn't concerned about anyone else overhearing them here.

"Ww..." After swallowing and clearing his throat, Michael managed to form words and sentences. "I wasn't looking for you, just a place to swim a little and beat the heat. Not sure even how I managed to find the spot you told me about once, assuming this is it, and I certainly wasn't expecting it to be using it."

"Figures," Maria muttered. "The cosmos likes to play games like this with broken couples."

"Yeah," Michael muttered. All of a sudden, the situation seemed to hang thick with expectation, as if each of them were waiting for the other to make a move, or a decision, or just a signal.

Well, if he kept waiting for Maria to take the initiative, he could be standing here all day. Michael mentally reviewed his options. He could play the gentleman's card, apologize for bothering her, and head back to town, or try to find another decent spot further up the the creek, but Michael wasn't too wild about any of that... he really was very hot, and there was no guarantee of finding another spot. He could just strip down to his swimshorts and head into the water, let Maria react to that as she might, but he didn't really want to be that rude and unilateral with her either. So...

"Well, is there enough water there for both of us?" he asked, indicating the whole area around where Maria was standing.

That put the question back in Maria's court, and it seemed as if he could see the same reactions struggling back and forth on her face: she was not eager to share her private sanctuary today, and also reluctant to reject him and insist on her pre-eminent rights. After a moment Maria made her decision clear. "Sure come on in if you want. I wouldn't get those jeans wet if I were you, though." Maria grinned, letting her body fall back slightly and keeping her collar from dipping beneath the surface by making waving gestures back and forth in the stream with her hands. From the stable direction of her gaze, Michael realized that she intended to watch pretty carefully as he took off his clothes.

Well, he didn't mind that. Quickly and yet with as much flair as he could manage under the circumstances, Michael slipped off his mettalica t-shirt, shoes and socks, and then unsnapped his jeans, (thankful to the cosmos or whatever gods ruled it that the situation hadn't, yet, given him an embarassing tent in his shorts.) He removed the pants as well, gathering everything into a loose pile, and then noticed where Maria's clothes were neatly folded and sitting on a flat rock... she'd worn a t-shirt too, it looked like, and a short denim skirt.

An idea popped into Michael's head, and he pondered ways and means. Trying to do this the old-fashioned way would be much too obvious -- Maria would notice right away, which would definitely ruin the fun. Fortunately, Michael had other resources available to him than the old-fashioned, immediately obvious ones. He concentrated intently as he put his own clothes down, and nodded mentally, well pleased with the results.

The water of the forest creek was cool, and somehow seemed wetter than anything Michael could ever remember touching. He waded in, from mid-calf deep to mid-thigh, and then fell forward, letting the water spread out and surround his entire body. After a long moment, he felt himself starting to float back to the surface. Michael had discovered a few years ago that he could hold his breath for quite a long time, nearly five minutes, but it wasn't that much fun if he couldn't actually stay underwater the whole time. So he popped his head out of the water and shook it back and forth so that little drops of water sprayed out all over. He could hear Maria yelp with surprise before his eyes were open, and smiled.

He didn't expect that she'd be able to splash quite such an impressive burst of water into his face at EXACTLY the moment that he looked around for her. "HLLEYYGH!!" He spluttered and tried to get his bearings back in a dignified way. Not much luck on that score. He stumbled back a few steps just as his vision cleared again. Maria was standing near the edge, the water up several inches past her knees, and her hand was poised to splash another streak at him... but she didn't move it yet.

"Okay, alright, tr..." Michael started, and then it occured to him -- what the heck was he was afraid of? Aliens weren't made of sugar, so he wouldn't melt no matter how much she splashed him. "Oh, forget that! You want a water fight, *really*??"

Maria grinned, and splashed him again without saying a word. Michael waited until it was almost at him - he didn't really want to do anything that would keep it from hitting him. (For one thing, these splashes were a pretty great way to cool down.) But just as it was almost at him, he focused his mind to suck a column of water up like a hose under pressure, aiming it, for fun, directly at the neckline of Maria's top. A squeal of surprise and mild embarassment reached him just as the splash of water did. "Hey!! That's not fair, you know that I can't do that back to you," she protested after a few seconds.

"Yeah, I do," Michael admitted, feeling the water drip down his arms. "That's kinda why I did it, actually."

"Well, don't do it again!" Michael couldn't be sure, but Maria might have actually stamped one foot when she said that.

"Or what??"

"Or I'll just have to..." She broke off and hurried toward him, and Michael couldn't resist generating another splash to hit her from the side. "Yiiiee!" One of Maria's feet seemed to slip on the creek bottom, and she teetered on the edge of her balance for a moment before crashing down among her own waves. Michael hurried over to see if she was okay, a lump of worry in his throat.

He needn't have been so worried. As soon as Michael bent over Maria, she seemed to spring back up out of the water, several fingers clenching a bit of tender skin on the inside of his upper arm in a vicious pinch. "Okay, spaceboy... here's how it's gonna work. You're going to promise me that any splashing you might do will be the old-fashioned way, with your own two hands..." **SQUEEZE**, and Michael fought back a whimper with mixed results, "and then I let your arm go. Gotit?"

"Alright, alright, I promise, sheesh," Michael muttered. "No more splashing no-hands. Gotit." Maria let him go. "Well, do you want to keep water fighting?? I can probably make a pretty good go of it with my hands."

"Nah, you went and spoiled the whole mood of it," Maria complained, but she didn't seem to be too upset about that. She walked away from him, and lay back into the water, doing some kind of nearly-horizontal version of treading water with her arms and legs that Michael had never seen before.

Michael shrugged and lay back into the stream himself - started doing a modified backstroke. The cool water surrounded all of his head up to the edges of his face, and he stared upwards, seeing the patterns that the bright sunlight made against green leaves and brown branches. There was a patch of brilliantly blue sky visible off to one side, and the contrast was phenomenally striking.

"So, erm... how've you been?" Maria asked, a little awkwardly.

"Not too bad," Michael replied casually. "Picking up a lot of shifts at the cafe, as I think you might have noticed. Aside from that, just trying to beat the heat, which is what brought me up here."

"Okay," Maria muttered. "Been spending any time with Tess?"

Was that a trick question? Michael decided to take it at face value. "A little. She comes over to talk about stuff sometimes. I think she's kinda lonely since you-know-who left." Pause for a moment. "She's been telling me a few things about my, err, my talents, and showing me a few new tricks."

"Ahh," Maria replied. "Like the water trick?"

"Kinduv," Michael mumbled. "It's all just matter and energy, but yeah, I probably wouldn't have thought of that a few weeks ago." Trying to change the subject, Michael asked, "And what about you? What have you been up to lately??"

"Working, too," Maria said. "At the cafe and helping my mom out. Hanging around at the Crashdown with Alex some... and with Max. He misses Liz a lot, and so do I."

"Yeah, I guess you both would," Michael mumbled. "But I think that maybe she did the right thing, taking a little distance."

"Oh right, of course that makes sense to you," Maria groaned. "You might be the type to run away from his relationship problems, but Liz isn't usually that stupid."

"What's so stupid about realizing when something won't work and being *strong* enough to walk away no matter how much you want to stay?"

"Fine then, have it your way: watch *me* wlk away!" Michael sat up in the water hurriedly as Maria got to her feet and waded out into the shallows, (looking extremely sexy in her swimsuit and her righteous indignation,) and climbing up onto the bank. Michael began to count silently to himself. "GUERIN!! What the hell did you do with my stuff?"

Michael stood up in the stream and concentrated, ready to do anything he had to to keep Maria from getting close enough to pinch him again. But she didn't try right away, just came back to the bank and glared some very painful (metaphorical) daggers at him. Michael quirmed a little under the force of that look.

"Okay, promise not to pinch me or try to tickle me or anything like that," he started, "and I'll come out and show you where I hid your clothes, kay? It was a stupid prank that I pulled before I got in myself, and I'm sorry."

For a long moment, Maria just continued to stare at him. Then she softly counted aloud to five, and finished with, "Okay, I promise. No pinching, or tickling -- you may not want to admit it Guerin, but you really ARE ticklish, and I've seen the proof with my own eyes -- or any of the other traditional punishments... I won't do anything to hurt you, I promise. Come on out."

Michael laughed slightly... it was slightly ridiculous on the face of it, Maria promising not to hurt him... but he wouldn't have been wild about going near her if she hadn't. Michael climbed out of the creek, considered putting his t-shirt on, but decided not to bother with it until he'd dripped dry for a bit. The warm air hit him again as soon as he had left the cool water of the stream, and he knew it wouldn't be long before he was dry... except for when the sweating started again. "Umm, they're just under the bush here..." He leaned down to peer at where Maria's top and skirt were hidden, and Maria crouched next to him.

All of a sudden, Michael was... was literally intoxicated by her nearness, the smell of Maria's wer skin all over. A tiny voice in his head said that what he was about to do was a big mistake.

Another voice asked just what it was that he was about to do... or actually, it got about halfway through asking. The question faded out as Michael took Maria by the shoulders and kissed her, a soft and simple kiss that grew more passionate as both of them let down their walls and allowed the feelings that had been buried inside them to be expressed this way.

Michael moaned and brought his hands to the small of Maria's back, insistently drawing her lithe body closer to him. Maria's right hand was stroking Michael's upper arm, (so tender compared to the cruelty of her fingers earlier, in the pool,) while the palm of her left hand was flat against the edge of his chest.

And then she backed away, just slightly, and looked into his eyes. It was unmistakeable, in Michael's opinion, that she was about to say something sarcastic and slightly bitter, but whatever that line was, it got visibly squelched. "That... that was really great," she mumbled softly. "But... but I'm really worried about what you're gonna say next."

Her face broke Michael's heart... so sincere and vulnerable and loving. "Umm... would it help at all if I didn't actually, you know -- say it?"

Maria took a moment to think about that. "Not say it, as in, say something different, something opposite? Or not say it as in, we both know the gist of what you'd say, so we can spare ourselves the angst of you actually saying them and me actually hearing them??"

"Umm... the second one, the bad one."

She considered again. "Maybe a little. Well, I'd probably better get, err, get going." And she practically wrenched herself out of Michael's arms, dropping down onto all fours to retrieve her clothes from the hiding place.

Now, part of Michael's brain definitely appreciated the sight of Maria, still dressed only in a bikini, squirming around a little in that position, and wanted to prolong the experience. But Michael also realized that watching the show for long wouldn't do wonders for his resolve, so with a definite mental effort, he sent the clothes flying in between her arms. Growling with surprise and frustration at the whole situation, Maria backed up slightly, grabbed her stuff and stood up again. Quickly she slipped the shirt over her head and arms, wrapped the skirt around her waist and fastened it, and put her sandals on. Then, without another word, she stormed off down the forest trail, leaving Michael to admire the rear view and wonder where she'd parked the Jetta. When she disappeared around the bend, Michael shrugged to himself and jumped back into the stream, splashing water everywhere and stumbling on the bottom as he landed, but laughing.

After about a minute, he heard a muted roar and wondered for a second what it was. Then he rushed out, just in time to catch one more glimpse of Maria, riding his motorbike away down the forest trail. She must have slipped back for it while he was in the water. Michael hadn't even realized she would be able to DRIVE a motorcycle, never mind drive it relatively expertly on fairly rough ground. By the time he thought of using his powers to stop her without hurting her somehow, Maria and the bike were long gone.

Well, he'd have an interesting time getting back to town, but that could wait. Maybe someone else would show up before he had to worry about it, Michael went back to the water yet again.

==========

"I think I wandered through the woods for an hour and a half before I found the bike," Michael mentioned to Maria, after a long moment of meory. "You left it where you had parked the Jetta, I assme?"

"Umm, yeah," Maria replied, looking down.

"Pretty wild stunt to pull," Michael decided. "I approve." She looked up into his eyes as he said that, and smiled. "By the way, it bears repeating that I'm an idiot, and I'm really sorry for shutting you out like that all summer. I shoulda known better.

"That's okay," Maria told him. "So, did Courtney get on her way alright?"

"I think so," Michael said. "She was just getting ready for her cab when I left... I offered to leave a key for her to lock my place up and slip it under the door, but she made me wait for her." Maria laughed at that. "There was a cab pulling up as I left -- taking her back to the airport or wherever, I guess."

"Greyhound station," Maria corrected absently. "She didn't mention that she'd taken the bus here?"

"No... wow, that must be, what, a nine hour ride?"

"Something like," Maria replied. "She had round-trip bus tickets here and back... I think she's going to take a plane when she comes back to Roswell for this weekend. Wasn't wild about the bus ride..."

TO BE CONTINUED...
Read my other roswell stories!

"A man does not make his destiny: he accepts it or denies it. If the Rowan tree's roots are shallow, it bears no crown." From 'the farthest shore', Ursula LeGuin.

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Chrisken
Obsessed Roswellian
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Post by Chrisken »

What they seem
Part five


Isabel frowned slightly, considering a block of words on the computer screen in front of her - latest in a series of practice geography essay questions that she had pasted into a word processor. She was a little more than halfway through an impromptu 'drill exam'... of course, the actual history final wouldn't be something that she could type in on the computer, more was the pity, but Isabel didn't feel like writing her practice questions out longhand just because she would have to do that with the real thing - it would only make her hand more tired and strained. Working from memory, she tried to compose a topic sentence about the state of the emergent American union in 1790, and had typed a dozen words for her first try at a topic sentence when... "Hi, sis!" She was interrupted.

Muting a growl of frustration, Isabel noted the time that she was pausing the drill exercise, and turned off the monitor. "Hey, Max. What's up??" She turned her seat around after speaking, looking briefly around the high school computer lab.

"Umm, not too much," Max admitted, pulling up a chair of his own. "Just thought I'd pop in for a little hands-on practice before my big computer studies test. Were you in the middle of something?"

"Yeah, but actually I could do with a bit of a break," Isabel admitted, sighed, and stretched a little. "So, erm -- you and Tess, huh? Look like you're getting a little serious."

"Kind of... I still want to go slowly, but, well, yeah, we're together now." He took a deep breath. "I know that you don't exactly approve, but..."

"I'm not sure I'd put it quite that definitely," Isabel qualified. "I was surprised when I first found out, yeah. But I'm really not my brother's keeper," and with that she reached out to tweak a tiny little bit of hair so that it fall partly onto his forehead. "And whether or not I approve of who you're dating is beyond the point. I'm curious about something, though..."

"Yeah? Go on," Max said. Isabel pulled her chair closer to Max's and lowered her voice.

"The reasons that you went to Tess... do they have anything to do with our supposed destiny? Or our, well, what makes us different?"

Max considered that briefly. "Destiny no. I have my own life to live here on Earth, and past lives don't have anything to do with that. Our difference... that's a tougher one. Tess understands a lot of what I'm going through, and there are things that I don't need to worry about telling her about. That's not absolutely required in someone that I'm dating, but it's a big plus.

"And to be even mostly honest with someone... someone normal, would mean turning their lives upside down, which is something I'd be really nervous about doing. Liz and Maria, they know a lot obviously, as do Kyle and Alex... but Maria's with Michael obviously, I've given Liz everything I could and it wasn't enough."

"And Kyle isn't your type... I think," Isabel cracked. Max shot her a dirty look.

"I'm not sure how much of the deal has to do with that stuff, I admit," Max muttered. "But I definitely like Tess for just who she is. We may or may not end up together forever, but right now I'm very happy that I sat down with her outside the prom, and that we started this thing."

"Then I'm happy for you too," Isabel said. "And, erm, on that note I should probably get back to this practice test, and you should grab a station before they're all gone and start your own practice."

Max smiled, and touched his hand to hers in a briefly affectionate gesture. Then he got up.

Isabel found that the next few questions were a lot easier to concentrate on, somehow. When the entire set was done, she reviewed her answers and was pretty satisfied with most of them... there were a few subjects that she should probably check in her textbooks and notes, and then try again. So she logged out of the computer, said a very quick goodbye to Max, (who seemed to be nearly elbow-deep in some console java code and doing his best to struggle through it,) and headed for one of the several 'finals study halls' that had been set up all over the school.

Isabel didn't make it straight to study hall that time, because she hadn't made it thirty feet from the computer lab before running into Alex. "Hey baby, how's it going??"

"Ehhh... just got out of 'discrete and finite math,'" he replied, and Isabel remembered that he had told her about having a math final this morning. "How about you??"

"Still got a little work before being ready for history," she told him, "but that can wait a while." Her history test wasn't until the next day. "You wanna go and grab some lunch??"

"Sure." Alex considered the options for a moment. "Crashdown??"

"Nah, not today," Isabel said. "You ever tried Beaumont fusion??"

"Umm... what the heck is Beaumont fusion??"

"Come with me," she told him with a slightly mischievous smile, "and find out. Kyle and I found this place about two weeks ago." Isabel looked into his eyes. "Are you up for it?"

"Umm... oh, sure -- why not?!" And so they went, and Alex had to agree that Beaumont fusion cuisine, as very odd as the name sounded, was excellent. He had steak with onions and gravy, and Isabel had a pork chili. Beaumont fusion, apparently, was a blend of texan, mexican, cajun, and creole food.

"By the way, Alex, how are your Java skills?" Isabel asked as they walked back to his car.

"Ummm... err, I can brew a pot about as well as your average guy who doesn't drink very much coffee."

She shook him playfully by the shoulder. "No, not that kind of Java. Computer-wise."

"Oh, *that* Java. Erm... it's not my favorite language, but I've coded a few pretty complicated applets. Probably have a good beginner-to-intermediate grasp of the language, why??"

"Oh, it's about Max, actually. He has computer studies with Mister Kenneth, and he's... well, I was going to say he's having a tough time of that, but that's not quite right. I think he's doing alright, he'll probably get a decent grade, but he really *wants* to be doing better and feels like he can't quite get there, you know?"

"Yeah, I think I see what you mean," Alex replied. "Well, I might be able to help him out... kinduv depends on whether he wants help or just to power through it on his own."

"I think I can encourage him to listen," Isabel said with an obscure smile. "Give me an hour with him, and I'll call you with the details, 'kay??"

"Alright," Alex agreed, laughing. Nobody could ever say that Isabel was less than confident in her powers of persuasion.

"So, are you gonna try to catch him back at school."

"Yep. You wanna head back there too, or..."

"Sure. I've earned a bit of veg time, might as well spend it in the sci-fi nook of the school library. Don't think anyone else will likely be there."

Isabel smiled as he started the car back up again.

==========

"Hey," Kyle knocked on the half-open door, and when Tess smiled, he stepped partway in. "Have you been avoiding me??"

"Umm... er, not that I know of, I just kinda need to finish prepping for this chemistry final."

"Not just right now," Kyle continued, stepping forward again. "For like the past week, or more... ever since the prom, pretty much. Sure, I see you around here, at meals, getting ready for school in the morning. But... but we don't really spend time together like we used to."

"Well, umm... yeah, I know we haven't been hanging out as much as before," Tess admitted. "I guess I didn't see that quite as avoidance, though. For one thing, I wasn't sure that, umm... well, after how our Prom date ended--"

"It didn't end that badly, did it?" Kyle said with a smile. "Tess, I said that I thought of you like a sister, and you told me you understood. That wasn't just a way of brushing you off... I still want you to be a big part of life, just not to be your boyfriend. Seems like you're well on your way to getting yourself one of those, anyway."

Tess laughed. "That reminds me of something else, actually, 'bro.' I have been spending a lot of time with Max, and didn't really want you to be around when I'm with him because... well, did you or did you not threaten to torment Max by acting all overly protective of me, like the stereotypical big brother who thinks that no guy is good enough for his little sis??"

"Umm... not in front of you, and not in those exact words, but yeah, I do remember saying something of the sort," Kyle admitted. "Which begs the question of how you heard. Let's see... I only said that to Liz. Liz might have told Maria, or Alex, or Sean... I'm guessing that Liz told Alex, Alex told Isabel, and Isabel told you. Huh?"

"Actually, it was Michael who told me," Tess replied. "He didn't say who had told him, and I didn't ask."

"Well," Kyle muttered. "I kinda was looking forward to bugging Max a little, but I'd rather give up my fun than never see you. So, if you want..."

"Oh, maybe I was too jumpy about it," Tess interrupted. "You can go ahead - I might even set you up with an opening. Just don't be *too* hard on my boy, okay??"

"All right," Kyle agreed. "So, chemistry, huh??"

"Yep." Tess indicated the books in front of her with a sigh. "Molar equations with inorganic reactions." She groaned slightly, and changed the subject back a little. "Kyle, am I gonna have to help set you up? You're kind of the only one in the gang now who doesn't have a thing now."

"Thank you *very* much," he shot back dryly, and Tess realized the other meaning that 'thing' could have in that phrase.

"I mean, Liz is with Sean, at least tentatively, and..."

"I know what you meant," Kyle admitted in a soft voice. "Actually, there's someone I kinda like, and I'll tell you about it in a little while, maybe. Not quite ready yet..."

"Well, you'd probably better make your move soon, before we head off to the Bahamas, unless you want to stay behing," Tess pointed out. "Or --" She peered curiously into Kyle's face, trying to identify something she saw there... "Or unless your mystery girl is going to be going to the bahamas with us... in which case the only candidate who makes much sense would be Michael's sister Laurie!" Kyle didn't say anything. "Kyle, sorry but I've gotta know for sure now. Is it Laurie Dupree?"

"Yes. Okay, how did you do that?" Kyle muttered.

"Um... how did I do what?"

"Guess it like that."

"Umm... well, you smiled a tiny secret smile when I mentioned that you'd have to tell her before we left, as if there was something about the situation to do with the trip that I didn't understand. And you shook your eyes back and forth when I talked about staying behind, so that wasn't it. From there, it just kinduv all came together."

"Okay," Kyle said softly.

"You know, Michael is NOT going to be wild about the idea of you being with his sister," Tess warned.

"Yeah, I know," Kyle agreed with a big sigh.

"Do you suppose it might help if you set him a good example? By not giving Max a very hard time at all, I mean?"

Kyle looked at her and thought about that one.

==========

"Oooh, hey, they have eight-ball tables in there, Max," Tess said, pointing at the storefront window we were passing, which seemed to be some sort of ambiguous restaurant/bar/lounge/cafe joint. Sure enough, you could make out people shooting pool, and one pool table that didn't seem to be in use.

Eight ball. Somehow that still made me feel a little funny. Liz and I had played eight-ball on our first date, and Senor Chao's, and it was one of the better memories I had about that night. Playing pool with Tess seemed like an odd thought... but I couldn't immediately put my finger on why.

"We, erm, we said that we weren't going to go have dinner tonight," I reminded Tess. "Just hang out for a little while."

"Well, we can hang out in here, wherever it is, and play a little eight-ball, right?" Tess asked. "Have a few cokes together, maybe some finger food, and then hasta. I don't really see the problem."

I was starting to lose sight of any problem myself, so I let Tess persuade me inside and rack up the balls. As the game started, any trace of awkwardness faded, and we started to get kinduv competitive. Somewhere along the way, Tess had learned to shoot some quite impressive trick pool shots, but I was nearly as good at her at straight aiming, and pulled every defensive tactic I could think of.

Tess just won that game, but I skunked her by two balls on the next one, and so of course she started all of this 'third one is the tie-breaker' talk, which seemed a little... well, I'm not sure what I thought about that, but I didn't raise too much of an objection. Tess did well off the break and got two balls ahead, then three, and I had just managed to narrow the gap to one when...

"Scratch!" Tess laughed softly as the white cue ball sailed smoothly into the side pocket. "Max, you scratched! Umm... hello, what are we looking at?" And then, she had finished following my gaze to the two people who had just walked in through the door, and fell silent. It was Liz... and Sean DeLuca. Ask a slightly silly question.

Liz had spotted me instantly too. I wondered for a moment why they had come -- certainly they couldn't have been expecting to find us here, and I somehow didn't think that Liz knew about this place herself... didn't seem like her sort of joint. Was that a snap judgement on my part? Or maybe Sean had brought her here for the food. As far as that went, maybe they had just been out walking and decided to come in, like Tess and me. This town being what it was, stranger things had been known to happen.

I sort of expected Liz to duck away and avoid us, but she didn't. (Maybe I've been underestimating just how brave she is, the past few months.) She walked right up to the pool table, where the two of us were standing, and made a little wave. "Hi, Max. Tess." She nodded slightly at 'the other girl.'

"Hello, Liz," Tess replied. "Sean." Sure enough, 'the other guy' had followed his girl over. The awkward tension seemed so thick that I was worried about inhaling too big a chunk of it and suffocating myself.

"Hey hey," Sean replied merrily, seemingly about as carefree as ever. (Did that just mean that he wasn't worried about me stealing Liz back from him?) "Wanna play some doubles team when you're done there??"

I blinked a little... had never really played doubles team eight-ball before, or thought about it. "We'd love to!" Tess enthused... and then caught herself and looked over at me. "Umm, I mean... well, Max, do you want to?"

I took a deep breath, and for a moment, not really intentionally, my eyes locked onto Liz. She had just finished shrugging to herself slightly... not particularly wild about this concept but resigned to it. That made me feel a little better about it, but also bad about taking my cue from Liz when we weren't together anymore.

So I tried to take my cue from Tess instead. "Sure, let's go!" A pause for thought... finishing the rest of the game against Tess would be a little weird, if we were going to team up and be partners next. "In fact, erm, why don't we just abandon this game and start the couple-on-couple right now?"

"Works for me," Tess replied. Liz and Sean shared a sidelong look and then half-nodded, whihc adds up to a full nod between the two of them I guess.

The dynamics of that first four-person pool game were interesting. I was probably paying more attention to the people than the little ivory balls, which might have had something to do with the outcome, but I couldn't exactly help what was holding my attention.

Tess was the first to come out really aggressive and competitive... possibly just because she was in direct competition with Liz. And it didn't really take too long for Liz to respond in kind... she'd never particularly liked Tess, and was probably still a little upset and frustrated that Tess and I had finally gotten together. Then Sean caught the spirit -- I don't think he knew all the details of why the girls were wanted to win so bad, but it wouldn't be hard for him to see that he could pick up major points with Liz by helping her beat Tess.

For my own part, I didn't feel that cutthroat about it. I tried to play well, well enough that Tess wouldn't have obvious reason to get upset at me either way, but it didn't really matter to me either way, and I definitely didn't want to do anything to further inflame the simmering competition if I could help it.

As it happened, with a few lucky shots that Liz made, (and yes, they were honest, Tess wasn't using her powers, or at least I'm pretty sure that she couldn't have been,) we ended up almost even going into the finals. They needed only one stripe and then the eight-ball when I sank the second-to-last of our solid colors and pulled up even. However, I had also managed to set myself up with a tricky shot. The number two ball, the last of our colors that I had to shoot for, was on the other end of the table from the cue ball, but the same side, (end being the long way across the table, side being of a lengthwise split, if you know what I mean.) The eight ball was almost in between them, just out to one side, so that if I was going to directly hit the two into the nearest corner pocket, the eight would be almost exactly in the way. The fourteen, their last stripe, was near the eight but a little further out towards the other side of the table, so that if I tried to do a simple bank shot off that side, *it* would be in the way.

There was only one shot that had even a reasonable chance, as I figured it, and that was to shoot straight for the two and knock it into the OTHER far corner pocket, the one that it was further away from. It seemed unlikely, but...

I took a sighting along the pool cue, adjusted my ain slightly, and shot. The cue ball rolled across the table, hit the two ball, and I was sure that the game was lost for us. It wasn't aimed quite right at the far corner pocket -- it didn't have enough momentum...

But the momentum was sufficient, and the aim was close enough. The solid ball clunked into the pocket, and then it was really pretty easy to call the eight ball and sink it. Tess and Liz's faces looked like those traditional comedy-tragedy masks.

Well, I had done my best, and we won, and I refused to feel bad for Liz just because she'd been taking the game so personally. (It also didn't suck that Liz now had no particular reason to show Sean any gratitude, but that wasn't something I was making a priority out of... right?)

There was a bit of awkward silence once the results of the game had sunk in. "Umm... maybe we'd better go get something to eat, huh Tess?" She looked at me and nodded without saying anything. "Liz, Sean... you want the table?"

"Umm... no, actually... I'd rather go," Liz said. "Sorry, but I..." She frowned, tried to say something, and then rushed for the door. Sean shrugged a nervous shrug at us, and then put his cue down to follow her. (Liz had already put hers aside.)

I wasn't sure what to make of all that. Maybe the game hadn't been such a good idea, if Liz was going to get so upset about having lost. But then... well, maybe I should just stop thinking about Liz so much.

"Do you want to eat here?" I asked Tess, speaking softly.

"Umm... yeah. Let's see if they have chicken strips. And tabasco of course - they darn well better have that!!"

==========

"Do you... do you want anything for dessert?" Maria asked, once she was done taking a drink from her water glass.

Michael smiled at her, ate a bite carefully, (since Maria was making such a big deal out of this dinner, it seemed the least he could do to try and keep a watch on his table manners,) and picked up the little black card stuck at the back of their booth, looking at the pictures of treats For a moment he grinned, then caught himself. "Ummm... you know, I don't really need anything more, no."

"I didn't ask what you needed," Maria pointed out teasingly. "If it's the money you're worried about, don't. I said that I'd pay for everything, and I meant it - including dessert. This one time, at least, I don't mind. It's an important occasion."

Michael smiled at that, feeling a little foolish about the fuss that Maria was making, but also appreciating it on some level. Final grades had come out that day, and she'd been very pleased to find out that not only had Michael passed all his classes, but he'd managed to make 'a C average', which was certainly something that hadn't happened to him before in school. For anyone else, that wouldn't be an accomplishment to get worked up about -- which was why he had the foolish feeling, but he supposed that maybe Maria would need to grade him on a different curve, so to speak, if the two of them were going to make it in the long run.

"Okay, thanks then. Well, the chocolate ice cake looks great!!" Michael realized his fingers had strayed to the little bottle of tabasco sitting on the table, as if checking to make sure that nobody had taken it away, or would get a chance to, before his dessert arrived, and laughed at that.

Maria noticed the tabasco thing too, and smiled. "Well, I think I'll have the fried ice cream. They do it pretty well, here."

Michael nodded. "With chocolate ice cream or vanilla??"

"Ooooh." Maria took the dessert menu from him. "I... I'm not sure how to choose," she admitted.

She remained undecided until the waitress was actually waiting for her order, and then asked Michael if she could have or trade a little bit of his cake to satisfy a minor chocolate craving. He said yes, and so she got the vanilla fried ice cream... and about half a minute later, started saying that she should have got the chocolate. But she stopped complaining after they had actually traded small amounts of their desserts and she started in on it.

Maria wrapped her arms around Michael and kissed him energetically as they stepped out of Senor Chao's onto the street. "I wish... I wish that we had all night, to celebrate properly."

"Yeah, so do I," Michael admitted, trying to calm his heart down slightly after the stimulation of Maria's lips. "But you gotta do what you gotta do, right??" Maria had been unable to get out of her evening shift working at the cafe tonight, no matter what tricks she had tried. "You could come over tonight after closing..." He looked into her face and saw the conflicting emotions there, the longing and the... was it caution? Uneasiness?? "Or tomorrow morning, for that matter."

She smiled at him. "I'll be there sometime. But right now... well, in a few minutes, I'd better be at the cafe, ready and willing to serve alien-themed food to anyone who still wants some." Michael chuckled.

Michael rode with Maria to the Crashdown, hung out in the dining room a while, but none of the rest of the gang was around, and he didn't have room to eat anything more, so he said goodbye pretty quickly and walked home. Watched some of a late baseball game on the little television, listened to some music, but he couldn't seem to get into either activity. Finally Michael went out again, got the bike out, and rode over to the Evans house.

When he climbed in Max's window, a surprising amount of folded clothes and other items were arranged all over his bed. Michael shook his head slightly -- he loved Max like a brother, that went without saying... but he even packed kinduv like a girl. In terms of how much he was taking, how much he was organizing it, and... "You're packing already?? I mean, we don't even leave until the day after tomorrow!"

Max looked up from the bottom drawer of his dresser. "Just getting a head start on it. I need to be spending some time in at the museum tomorrow, and run around doing a few other errands. And it's been a while since I've packed for such a long trip."

Michael paused... he hadn't quite thought of it in those terms. He'd rarely packed for any kind of trip beforehand, and never for one that was longer than maybe three days or so. This was slightly more than two weeks. Well... still, it shouldn't take him too long to get everything organized and into the secondhand suitcases he was planning to use. "Alright, alright." He smiled. "Looking forward to hitting the beach?"

"Yeah, quite a lot... and you? No, on second thought, I don't think I really need to ask." Michael raised an eyebrow. "Between getting out of Roswell, and spending that much time with your sister again, in a non-crisis situation... I can tell how happy the thought makes you man." Michael nodded, admitting the validity of the point. "Is she arriving here in Roswell tomorrow?"

"Yeah, her flight gets in around ten-thirty." Michael thought about that. "Maybe I should get some packing done before then, too."

"Wouldn't suck, as far as plans go." Michael shook his head and nearly picked something up off the bed to throw at Max, but he didn't think he could get much distance out of folded underpants or t-shirts.

"Oh, hey," Michael exclaimed as another thought struck him. "Maria and I were talking at dinner tonight... about rooming assignments. We have six double rooms for the twelve of us, and Maria had this scheme for, well... for arranging everybody into same-sex roommate pairs that could be as easily switched around as possible, so that people who are dating can sneak into each other's rooms without her mother, or Kyle's dad, noticing."

Max thought about that for a second, and smiled, though Michael wasn't sure if his happiness was specifically about getting some alone time with Tess, or just the excitement of planning a good caper. "Okay, so, how would that work?"

"Well, I was thinking that maybe you and Alex would be in one room, with Tess and Isabel close by," Michael suggested. "Possibly even with adjoining doors, although that kinduv seems way too obvious. If there are adjoining doors, I suspect that Mrs DeLuca is going to sort out whose room connects with whose, and overrule the obvious links."

Max smiled. "Has potential. And then... you and Sean, Liz and Maria, similarly?" Michael nodded. "Yeah, that's probably best. Works out pretty neatly, actually. Neither Alex or I would be very comfortable rooming with Sean I think... and either Liz or Maria would give Tess a hard time. I guess that leaves Kyle rooming with his dad, and Laurie sharing with Maria's mom?"

"Yeah, seemed like it would have to end up that way. Why??"

Max made his 'I'd rather not say' face, which usually just got Michael more interested and insistent, by this point. "Spill it, Max. There's something that you *know* you should tell me, though you don't want to. Right??"

"Okay, umm..." Max sighed. "Kyle told Tess that he kinduv has a thing for your sister. She wasn't supposed to tell me, so you *can't* let either of them know that you know."

Michael frowned. "Has he made a move on her yet? Does he think that she likes him back??"

"I don't know for sure, but I don't think so, to either question. But I kinda get the impression that he's hoping this trip would be a good opportunity to make an impression, to find out if she might like him if she gets to know him."

Michael worried that notion back and forth. If someone had asked him hypothetically, before he even knew he had a sister, what guy in his extended social circle he wouldn't want dating his sister... well, Max was probably at the top of the list, just because it was always super weird with the best friend, as far as Michael could figure. Then Kyle, for entirely different reasons. But he wasn't sure he got a say on who Laurie might be interested in. Then an odd thought struck him. "Say, Max, how has Kyle been treating you about the you/Tess thing lately, since the Bermuda trip was announced?" Michael had heard, thirdhand, of Kyle's opinions about the perogatives of brothers with their sister's would-be suitors, and that he considered himself Tess' big brother now.

"Umm... pretty cool about it since then, actually. Why do you... ohhh." Max saw the connection too. If Kyle was being nice to Max, was he trying to set an example that he hoped Michael would follow in turn?

"Well, I'm not gonna burn that bridge until I come to it," Michael said. "What do you say we take the Jeep out for a quick ride? It's a nice night, probably even better if we can get a little ways into the desert."

Max smiled. "Sure, I'm in for that."

===========

Isabel checked her reflection in the mirror once and headed out of her room. As she was coming to the end of the hall, she spotted someone with straight blonde hair sitting on the couch, and it took her a moment to recognize who it was, because it wasn't someone she was expecting. "Laurie, hi!! Um, what are you doing over here?"

"Oh, Michael asked me to drive him over," Laurie said, getting up quickly and looking a bit nervous. (Laurie Dupree seemed to often look nervous -- maybe that was a holdover from the traumas of her past two years or so.) Isabel impulsively hugged the other girl. "Seems that he managed to leave his motorbike here by accident." Isabel sighed at that... just the phrasing of it seemed quintessentially Michael to her. "And right now, he's talking with Max about something quickly."

"Okay. Well, it's nice to see you," Isabel said.

"Are you all packed for tomorrow?"

"Oh, not yet," Isabel sighed. "But I'll get there - don't worry about me. How are things in Arizona?"

"Not bad... Arizona will be able to take care of itself for two and a half weeks, at least, which is all that I'm asking from it at the moment." Isabel laughed slightly. "By the way, um... do you know Maria's mother?"

"Uh - yeah, actually, I kind of do," Isabel said. "Not really well, but I've met her a few times. Why do you ask??"

"Well, erm. Michael's asked me if I could share a room with her at the hotel. I'd like to oblige him..." and Laurie smiled at that, a little secretively, "but I'd kind of like to know what I'm in for first."

Isabel thought about it for a second. With Mister Valenti and Amy Deluca coming along as chaperones, that made twelve of them - she wasn't sure about the rooming arrangements, but presumably there wouldn't be many singles or Michael probably wouldn't have asked. Which meant... "Um, yeah, she seems nice enough, for that. I think you'll like her. And remember - she may be the 'adult supervision', but you're the one paying the piper. I know that she probably appreciates a chance to vacation away in paradise just as much as the rest of us do." Laurie smiled at that.

"Are... are you heading out to meet, umm, to meet Alex?" Laurie asked.

"Yeah, actually. Don't have to be out the door quite this second, but yep we're going out to lunch today."

Laurie nodded. "I... I can hardly imagine was it was like, for him to crawl voluntarily into that Gandarium cave... and to be trapped inside."

"It was a little bit foolish, actually," Isabel said, remembering how scared she'd been when she first realized how much danger he and Kyle were in.

"That too," Laurie admitted. "But brave, in a way... he was trying to help watch over a friend, and together, the two of them managed to find the crucial clue. The oxygen c-connection, I mean."

"Yeah, they did." Isabel smiled. "Are you trying to work your way around to asking me to pass along a message, Laurie? A thank you, maybe?"

Laurie thought about that for a pretty long while. "No. Once I make up my mind what I want to say thank you for, I'll have an opportunity to say it to him directly, on the trip, I think." Isabel smiled.

"Yeah, I think you probably will, at that."

"Well, enjoy your lunch. I think I'm going to go and see if I can eavesdrop on what Max and Michael are talking about." Laurie giggled.

"Have fun." Isabel headed out the door, wondered briefly if she should have asked if she could eavesdrop too, then dropped the idea and drove over to Alex's place.

They didn't actually go out to eat this time - Alex's parents weren't home, so he offered to cook for her, and Isabel was delighted to take him up on it -- "Nothing fancy," he said, though Isabel wasn't sure she'd agree. Alex chopped up raw carrot slivers as an appetizer, prepared sugar-grilled cubed steaks, fettucine and cream sauce. Everything seemed just perfect.

"My mother always told me to hold out for a guy who knows how to cook," she joked when the food was nearly finished. "You're just a fountain of hidden talents, Alex Whitman."

"I hope so." He laughed softly. "So, um... what next? We'd probably better clean up the dishes so my mom doesn't get mad at me... you don't mind helping, do you?"

"Oh, of course not," Isabel replied. She considered volunteering to do ALL the dishes since Alex had cooked, but doing them with him sounded like more fun -- yeah, that was the reason she didn't mention it. "And then, I think I can think of something else we can do together, since we're all alone here." She shot Alex her best alluring gaze, and almost giggled when she saw it land on his face.

It didn't take that long for the two of them to clean up all the dishes, (well, about half of them just needed to get loaded into the dishwasher, which was then full enough to get turned on,) and adjourn to Alex's room. Alex sat down on his bed, and Isabel considered her options before joining him there, maybe a foot and a half away to start. He smiled nervously. "Any idea how you were thinking of, um... doing whatever?"

"Well, we can start with kissing," she said lightly. "I know we both always enjoy that. And then... well, do we have to have it all planned out in advance?"

"No, I guess not," he admitted. "Was kind of wondering if we should set ground rules in advance on how far we're going to go, or just see where the heat of the moment takes us, because... well, I know I can get pretty hot just from kissing you." He blushed slightly while saying that.

"Ummm..." Isabel could feel her own face flushing. "Yeah, that might be a good idea, but nothing too restrictive, because I kinduv want to have room to explore, since we've got the opportunity." She tried to figure out where the best way of putting a suggested limit would be. True, they hadn't been together for that long, but Isabel felt that there had been a great passion for Alex Whitman growing in her all through the past year, that she'd been denying for far too long. "Only casual touching... below the waist." She looked mischievously at him. "Anything else, including *anything* above the line, is fair game. How about that??"

Alex's eyes grew wide, and his eyes ran up and down her figure for a moment as she sat there next to him. Isabel smiled - she had worn a simple white skirt, that went about four inches past her knees, a vivid red halter top, and matching red leather heels - not too high, but they looked good on her. (She always thought about Alex whenever she worn anything red, even after so long.) Her hair was down and loose, and she'd brushed it just enough so that the gold tones shone. Alex was looking pretty hot himself, even if he was just wearing jeans and a black t-shirt. "O-- okay, that works for me!" he finally managed to say, and quickly shuffled up close to her."

Isabel waited for him to kiss her, and he did, eagerly, softly at first, but with growing passion behind it, and Isabel was the first to get her tongue into the action, sliding it into his mouth as gently and certainly as if she felt it belonged there. (She wasn't entirely certain that it didn't. Alex lay back on the bed, pulling her forward with him, and brought one hand up to stroke it through her hair. They hadn't been making out for even two minutes yet, (probably,) but Isabel was already feeling out of breath and incredibly dizzy in the best possible way, between the feel of his lips up against hers, the fingers running through her hair, and the fact that her upper chest was pressed against him with a considerable amount of her weight behind it, the tips of her nipples already awake and aware of every little motion that she made, tweaking their growing peaks against the fabric that covered her breasts.

Impulsively, Isabel pulled out of the kiss, and Alex had just enough time to make a small disappointed sound from down in his throat as she swung her hair around, shifted her body down compared to his by about a handspan, and put her lips and tongue instead to work on his neck. It didn't take long for Alex to decide, apparently, that this was at least as good or better than the kissing. Isabel grinned, and hummed to herself as she licked around the hidden muscles of his throat and his Adam's apple. "Do you like that, baby? Tell me what you're feeling inside, alright??"

"Umm... okay, baby," Alex moaned. "I love the way that feels, I really love it." Isabel loved it too, especially the way it made the skin she was in contact with vibrate when he was speaking. "It's like it's sending cool washes of energy all over my skin, and from there little pleasant jabs of lightning are working further into my body. I love you so much, darling... I can't believe I got lucky enough that you feel something for me too."

"Oh, I feel something," she mumbled, continuing to lick and nibble on his neck. "And as far as lucky, well, you might have to reconsider your definition of 'getting lucky' pretty soon."

"Really?" Alex growled throatily, and slowly sat up, forcing Isabel to adjust her position and sit up too. He looked deeply into her eyes, she smiled back at him, and he put his hands on her neck, running them down her bare arms and back up her sides. Isabel sighed, loving the touch of his hands on her skin. Then he bent down slightly, to lay one hand against her calf and stroke her there just for a second before pulling back - trying to stay on the right side of 'casual' she guessed. "ANYTHING above the waist is fair game??" he repeated.

Isabel shivered all over in anticipation. "Anything is fair game, as in not beyond the ground rules of this afternoon. Not everything is fair game, as in something you can do without specific... specific assent."

Alex smiled slightly. "So... how do I tell the difference?" He reached out one hand, cupped her shoulder, stroking her skin there so that she could feel the warmth, both of his own flesh, and the warmth of the slight friction his movement created. There were tingles going all the way up and down her arm and she sighed. "The difference between something that I can just do, and something where I have to ask for your... for your assent??"

"Umm... I'm not sure," she admitted in a low moan. "Try... try to use common sense. I won't be upset if we have a ... a difference of opinion on that.

Alex grinned, and leaned close, whispering right into her ear. "May I help you off with that halter top, my darling?? It looks so terribly... *constricting.*"

Isabel couldn't resist giggling at that point, but she made sure to nod even as she giggled. "Yahhh- yes. By all means, my sweet, help me." She let him take the lead. The top was one that had a zipper up the back, and it didn't take long for Alex to find it, or work it. Once the two halves of the back were seperate, it was easy enough for Isabel to pull the halter-neck up off of her head and toss it away onto Alex's desk. Now all that protected her ample breasts from the bedroom air - and Alex's eager gaze, was a black strapless bra. Alex didn't make his move on that yet, but he brought one hand up to her right breast, running two fingers over the fabric that covered her nubbin, and Isabel gasped as an incredible surge of arousal flooded her entire system.

"Is that okay?" Alex's voice was teasing. "Should I have asked first before I did that??"

"No, no... it's okay," she gasped, and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, kissing him again and trapping his hand between their chests, which was definitely a pleasant sensation for her. But the position that they were sitting in was awkward, so Isabel withdrew after a second and tried to figure out what to do next. Alex watched her with a twinkle in his own eye.

"I think your top needs to go too," she whispered, tugging at the shoulders of his shirt, and Alex let her pull it off and away from his arms and chest. His body was more defined and muscular than Alex usually looked on a day-to-day basis... lean, but lean in a powerful way that his body language didn't really hint at. Isabel took off her shoes and shuffled further onto the bed, stretching herself out on her back, wearing just her bra, the white skirt, and a little jewelry. Then she waited a moment, to see if Alex would take the initiative again.

He did - in a slightly unexpected way. She felt a soft and slightly damp touch first - his tongue, and the tenderness of the contact and the cool sensation of that moistness drying on the skin of her trim stomach made her shiver all over. He continued kissing and nuzzling her belly, then playfully nudged his nose under the edge of her bra. Isabel laughed, but the sensation was definitely pleasant and sensual. Alex then crawled up beside her on the bed, using his fingers instead of his mouth, running them up and down the line of her cleavage, (except where he couldn't reach it because of the undergarment,) and rubbed her breast through the black fabric, higher up this time, avoiding her nipple, which just made her hotter for stimulation there.

They played the game back and forth a few more times, teasing each other and both teenagers figuring out new and inventive ways to arouse their partner, before Alex somewhat anticlimactically called it off. "Any... any more and I'll either... either explode, or break your ground rules." The look he shot her was teasing.

"Watching you explode would be insteresting," she breathed softly. "I don't think the below the waist rule applies to something we do to ourselves, as opposed to something we do to each other." Alex's eyebrow shot up as he realized what she was talking about.

"Umm, uh - errr..."

"But maybe we'll leave that for another time, too," she finished, realizing that Alex was still a little uncomfortable with the thought. "Maybe we should get dressed and try doing something a little less stimulating. Or something stimulating in a different way?"

Alex thought about that as he pulled his shirt back on and reached out to grab Isabel's top and toss it to her. Isabel found her own shoes and slipped them back on.

"Well, it's a beautiful day outside. Wanna go play some chess in the park?"

"Sure. You'll beat my ass, because I've never been that good at chess, and you've got the kind of brilliant brain that's probably just great at that sort of thing. But somehow it sounds like fun anyway."

"Ehh, I'll teach you some of the tricks," he said. "You're brilliant too - it won't take long before you're giving me a run for my king's rook."

Isabel laughed. "I look forward to that."

TO BE CONTINUED...
Read my other roswell stories!

"A man does not make his destiny: he accepts it or denies it. If the Rowan tree's roots are shallow, it bears no crown." From 'the farthest shore', Ursula LeGuin.

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Chrisken
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Post by Chrisken »

Part Six.

"Okay, let's see if we can sort out the seating for the flight to Stella Maris," Laurie said to the entire group of us. We had just come through the arrivals lounge in Albuquerque from the feeder airplane that travelled between Roswell and the big city once a day. "Everybody takes their ticket now - it'll save us going through this whole thing during boarding. Now... we've got seats 8D, E, and F, 9D E F G H and J, and 11D E and F."

"Why J?" Michael asked. "That's not with the others... 9I would be in between."

"They probably don't use I," Maria put in. "Would get confused with a 1."

"Yeah," Laurie agreed. "I've never been in a seat J before, but I remember from the seating chart that there WASN'T any one seat by itself, not next to at least one other seat that I'd bought, and there were nine seats across in the deluxe seating section. That means there isn't room for both an I and a J, as well as all the other letters." There was a pause. "So, um... anyone wanna pick first?"

There was a lot of glances being traded back and forth. "Okay, um, I'll go," Tess said a little undertainly. "Give me 8D." That would put her among the furthest forward, on an aisle... it would also make sure that Liz had a lot of choices if she didn't want to be near Tess. I took 8E quickly so that I'd be next to her.

"Umm... okay then, I'll go in 11F," Liz said next, apparently deciding to go along with the plan, and taking the furthest seat from Tess that wasn't the window seat, and Sean quickly snapped up 11E, which would put him next to her, of course. Maria decided that if nobody else was going to snap at the window she would, taking 9J, and Michael went next to her in 9H, and Laurie took the one next to *him* in 9G.

There were only five spots left. Isabel shot a long look at Alex and took 8F, next to me. That was a surprise, but there was only a chance for four couples to go next to each other, really, and three of them had been taken so far. If Alex and Isabel used one, it would keep Mister Valenti and Amy Deluca from being able to go together, which apparently was what she had in mind. Alex went along with it, taking 9F, right behind her, and Kyle tried to take 9G, which would have torpedoed Isabel's plan, but she glared fiercely enough at him that he gave up and took 11D, next to Sean. Valenti picked the one next to Alex, letting Amy Deluca have the aisle seat behind Tess.

"Okay, I guess that's that," I said. "Now, how about grabbing something to eat?"

"Ehh, I don't feel too hungry," Maria put in.

"Well, if you don't eat now, honey, then all you'll have is the airplane meal for lunch," Michael put in. "And those usually aren't terribly edible."

"I'll take my chances - and shop," Maria quipped, and Alex laughed at that.

The group ended up splitting up, and agreeing to meet at the check-in desk for the flight, if not earlier. Maria's mother, and Isabel, joined her for browsing through the airport shops instead of eating. Tess, Michael, and Laurie and I set off for the Sally Jones eatery, which I've been to before, flying with my parents through this airport -- a good place to grab some tasty, spicy, food with a touch of California sweetness thrown in. Liz, Sean, Alex, Kyle, and Mister Valenti decided to go to the Carls Junior instead.

============

"Are we there yet??" I shot a look over to the pretty girl on my left.

"Are you kidding me?" She'd asked that only four or five minutes before, and it had been kinda cute the first time. Now...

"Sorry." Tess flashed me a smile, which quickly faded into an expression that wasn't so happy. "I guess I don't do too well on long flights."

"Hmmm..." I thought about that. Tess had seemed more than a bit out of sorts when we caught a plane back from New York to New Mexico last winter, after the Summit ended so disastrously, but I assumed that it was just because ot the trauma of Rath and Lonnie capturing her and trying to force their way into her brain. Hadn't occured to me that the air travel itself might be a factor. (We'd been driven to New York cross country, but I wanted to get back and see Isabel and Liz as quickly as possible, and it hadn't been too hard to, um, find enough money for the plane tickets.)

"Did you ever fly, umm, before you came to Roswell? When you were living with Ed?"

"A... a few times," she muttered. "Normally when we had to get somewhere, or get our of somewhere, in a hurry, otherwise we'd probably drive. And so, yes, possibly it's psychological that airline travel has been associated with unpleasant memories. Or maybe it's just inborn in me, that I don't like getting cramped into tight, shaky quarters with a lot of other people."

"I'm sorry - I didn't know," I said, putting a comforting arm around her shoulders. If our two seats had been alone together, and especially if it hadn't been my sister on the other side of me, I would probably have tried kissing her or something more affectionate like that, to see if it would help get her mind off the discomfort. But... well, no, that was NOT going to happen unless Isabel got a sudden desire to go to the bathroom or something.

For a moment, I was *really* hoping that Isabel would get a sudden desire to go to the bathroom.

But she didn't.

Fortunately, it wasn't very long after that before we did start coming in for a landing on the island.

==========

"Okay, this is pretty freaking cool," Michael said, for about the fourth time. All of their rooms were on the third floor, at one end of the hotel, where the hallway from the elevators ended up at a kind of T junction with very short arms before they dead-ended themselves. Six double rooms, as Maria had indicated, going all the way around the T formation. Each room had an adjoining door on one other room, and just as Michael had anticipated, Amy DeLuca lost no time in working out which room connected with which, and making sure that nobody's significant other was just an interior door away.

Isabel had managed to hatch a plot in advance to help take care of that, though. She and Tess took room 306, with Max and Alex in room 307, which were next to each other but did NOT have an adjoining door... at least, not yet. Isabel was pretty sure that she'd be able to make an opening in the wall with her powers without compromising a load-bearing beam or anything like that. The guy's adjoining door led to Kyle and Jim Valenti, over in 308.

Next to Isabel and Tess were Maria and Liz, in 305. Michael liked the idea of Isabel's door in the wall trick, but didn't think he'd be able to pull it off, especially not since his roommate was Sean, who didn't even know about aliens, and neither of the girls they were wanting to swap with, so, to avoid attracting attention to the tactic, he DIDN'T pick 304, right next to the girls, but 303, across the T corridor from them. It should still be pretty easy to slip back and forth -- well, possible at any rate, even though Mrs Deluca and Laurie were in 304, right next to both of them at that end of the corridor. The adjoining door from Michael and Sean's room lead to 304, which should be convenient when he wanted to talk to his sister, and Mrs Deluca couldn't really complain, since by the math of the situation, there had to be one adjoining door that led from a guys room to a girls room.

Liz poked her head through the door into 303. "Hi guys... Sean." He turned around to her, and Liz blushed just a little bit. "What do you say, we go out for a walk on the beach right away??"

Sean grinned. "Sounds great to me. Regular clothes, something a little more tropi-casual, or swimwear??"

That brought out a giggle from Liz. "Well... I'll put a suit on if you will," she blurted out.

"You're on," Sean shot back.

"Hey, that sounds good," Michael said, hurrying to follow Liz and get something through the door before she closed it. "Maria, you up for a walk on the beach too??"

Liz turned around to me. "I don't think you'll have much luck with that - not before she's had an early dinner." Michael sighed, realizing that it was true. Maria had not thought very much of the food that was served on the plane and hadn't gotten very much of it down... though she'd seemed otherwise content enough to look out the window at the scenery and the pretty blue ocean. Ever since they landed at Stella Maris, though, she had been talking about nothing but food, and trying to get the rest of the group to wait long enough for her to grab some dinner - at the airport, along the taxi ride to Cape Santa Maria, and as they passed the hotel restaurant before checking in. Nobody had seemed interested in letting her hold them up because she'd decided not to eat anything back at Albuquerque, but now that they were all checked in and moved into their rooms, Michael suspected it wouldn't be long before she charged right back down to the restaurant. The question was... did he want to go with her or fins something else to do??

When Mrs DeLuca and Jim Valenti dedided to join Maria for dinner, Michael finally made his mind up to come too. Max and Tess each said that they'd be spending some time settling in, and Michael kind of suspected that one of them would be rushing over to the other's room as soon as the chaperones had left. (Somewhat surprisingly, neither Jim nor Amy even said anything to either of them, as far as Michael could tell -- maybe they wouldn't be taking things quite as strictly as Michael had feared.) Isabel and Alex also changed into bathing suits and headed out - Isabel had noticed that a boat would be leaving soon, to teach free-diving at a beginner's level, and she wanted to try that out. Michael decided to ask her about it when she got back, and maybe try it out with Maria. (Again, the alien holding-breath thing might come in very handy, and Michael wondered if Isabel had that ability too, or if she had discovered it already.)

The dinner was actually quite fun. Michael tried something that was meaty and Carribbean and nicely spicy-hot, and Maria's mother had a few rum punches with her grilled fish entree, and started telling a bunch of embarassing and funny stories from when she was a teenager himself. Mister Valenti got into the spirit of things, (though he hadn't had anything alcoholic as far as Michael could tell, just cappucino,) and Maria eventually, after a lot of badgering from her mother, told a moderately-edited version of how she and Michael had first got together, during the infamous December heatwave of '99.

"Okay, you've eaten," Michael whispered into Maria's ear as they walked away from the restaurant, arms around each other. "Any idea what you want to do now??"

"Well, we could check out the hotel pool," Maria said. "Neither of us should go in for an hour I guess, since we just ate, but changing into a suit and lounging around poolside sounds good."
'
"Yeah," Michael admitted. "But that 'no swimming an hour after eating' thing is a total crock of course. You know that?"

"Umm... uh," Maria looked up at him. "Are you sure??"

"Positive. I had this big argument about Isabel with it once, and went to the library and researched it once." He thought for a second. "Or maybe I should cover my ass slightly and say that it's a ninety percent crock. Really vigorous exercise after eating a lot *might* produce a stomach cramp, and having any kind of cramp while you're swimming is never fun and just might be dangerous. But there's really nothing that keeps you from getting in the water, so long as you don't push yourself for the same amont of time that you'd have been relaxing on the deck, otherwise."

Maria thought about that, and smiled. "Okay. Fun in the pool, here we come!!"

==========

"Ohh, that feels so great baby, we're so good together." Tess stopped mumbling at that point and started kissing me again. Not long after everybody else went down the elevators, she had slipped into my room and wasted no time on starting to make out. Not to imply, in any way, that I was complaining. Sure, yeah, there was a time when just the thought of wrapping my arms around her produced a vaguely icky feeling... but things had changed a lot since then. Actually spending time with Tess lately had let me get comfortable around her in a way that subtly avoiding her for months and months had not, (gee, who would have predicted that?) and there was no denying that I really liked her and, yes, was hot for her. Love?? Still not sure if I could call what we have love, or if I would want to. But I'm moving in that direction, slowly and sure.

There was also the fact that I'd spent an awful lot of time near her today in public, most of it sitting right next to her in the airplane seats, and not being able to do anything more than hold hands, which was more than a little out of the usual for us lately. And the intangible mystique of tropical air, which somehow did seem to smell of romance and fill your soul with more than a little passion when you've been breathing it for a while. So I certainly didn't mind being here, in my room, on the bed that I'd be spending the next two weeks sleeping on, and french kissing her. Hell, if she'd waited thirty seconds longer I'd have been walking through HER door. (Though I might have moved a bit more slowly, but what the hell. Let the lady set the pace, was something a wise man once told me.)

Even after all of that, I was a little surprised when I realized that Tess was unbuttoning her top while we kissed. It was a sleeveless blouse, white with blue vertical stripes. Hey, give me a break. I had plenty of chances to look at her, and memorize that particular detail, on the plane. And no, I wasn't particularly paying attention to what was *underneath* the blouse - at least, not as far as I can tell. The fact that her fingers were working on unfastening each button, one at a time, though -- was definitely having an effect on making my mind dwell on what I might see, and get a chance to touch, with her blouse open.

Let's get a few things straight... I'm an eighteen year old boy, (half-alien boy, whatever,) and I do have hormones and a sex drive. Some people have said I'm kind of a prude, (like Michael and Isabel,) and maybe I am a little bit. Still a virgin, I get grossed out a little bit sometimes that sexual references other kids think are 'hot', and in general I don't believe in satisfying the body's impulses just because they're there. On the other hand, there's no particular reason to NOT go along with an urge because it's there. How you make the decision, then, is something that I have to admit I still haven't worked out.

Okay, got slightly off topic there. Yes, I do have hormones, a sex drive, and particular preferences. I *do* really like breasts. Liz's still drive me crazy, even if they're not that big... something about the way they're shaped and the way they bounce just slightly when she moves. Tess' breasts are bigger, and I really do like looking at them too, though I try not to stare. Bigger isn't the same as being better, but her chest is nicely contoured, so perky it sometimes kills me, and not so big as to be immediately distracting.

But the part of my brain that always over-analyzes things was running a mile a minute, even while our lips were still locked together and Tess' hands reached up to hold my shoulders for a moment, presumably having finished their job of undoing buttons. A part of me definitely wanted to dive in, to let my fingers explore every inch of Tess, or at least every inch she was comfortable with me touching, (which might be quite a lot, since I don't think she's as inhibited as I am about this kind of stuff.) To unfasten her bra and bring my lips down to her nipples, lick on them, suck on them, and find out how loud I can make her moan by paying attention to them, if I try. Another part of me was very insistent that it was too soon to be even thinking about that sort of thing, that I hadn't moved nearly this quickly with Liz when I was first with her, and that I really needed to keep a little bit of caution in mind with Tess, because she was nuts about me before she met me and she probably doesn't have that kind of balance or restraint in how she feels about me, even now.

But in general, I was still undecided, until Tess brought her arm down, softly took my right wrist with her left hand, and pulled it to her bosom. I moaned though our joined lips and pulled my face back from hers slightly, determined to appreciate the new experience that my fingers had been brought to with all of my attention. That wasn't a decision I made consciously, just something that arrived in my head fully formed. Tess whined slightly as my lips left hers, then grinned and chuckled slightly when she realized what I was doing.

Soft, simple fabric. Cotton, or a cotton-something blend? I wouldn't have expected Tess to wear cotton underthings, instead of something more glamorous... (silk? satin?? Lace or lycra?) but it definitely felt nice against my palm. Silky, slightly curved skin was touching the tips of three of my fingers, and I pressed into that skin slightly, which made Tess smile and let out a soft, satisfied breath. In the course of that, the bottom of my hand, just about where the thumb and palm met, brushed up against something interesting, something that was poking up beneath the cottony fabric. Now it was my turn to smile, realizing that it was in the right place to be a nipple, and moved my hand over so that my thumb could stroke it and tweak it slightly through the red material.

Tess moaned, a sound that was hungry and incredibly arousing. Unfortunately, just about a second later, she mumbled "Oh, shit!!" and started hurriedly buttoning up her top - so quickly that she would have buttoned up around my hand and left it trapped inside her top, if that had been slightly more possible.

I shuffled back, surprised by her sudden transition, and cast about with my senses, trying to figure out what had shocked her so much. Nothing looked different, or felt different, or smelled different, but there were footsteps out in the hall. Ohhh... footsteps. I couldn't tell whose they were, but maybe Tess had recognized them somehow, or been able to identify who was approaching us by sensing their mind with her own. Which meant that she didn't think it was Isabel, or Alex, or anyone who'd be relatively unconcerned with the two of us making out. That left either...

I practically jumped off the bed, trying to relax and not appear as hot and bothered as I felt just at that moment. (Which was pretty hard.) I dropped myself into the desk chair next to Alex's bed, and Tess, having finished buttoning, threw herself onto the floor, stretched out on her stomach and facing me. Yeah, that looked about as innocent as anything we could come up with on the spur of the moment.

There was a soft knocking on the door. "Spot check!!" The door opened, and Amy DeLuca poked her head in. "Hey... well, hello there, Tess."

"Umm, hi Mrs DeLuca," Tess said, sounding pretty chipper under the circumstances. "Max and I were just, umm. trying to sort out what we wanted to do tonight and tomorrow."

"Alright," Amy said, nodding at me, and I returned the gesture. "Still... I think I'd rather that you kids weren't hanging around in each other's rooms when Jim or I aren't around. You can spend time together and talk down in the lobby, or any of a dozen other places. PUBLIC places." She paused a moment. "I'm trying not to be too strict about this chaperone thing, partly because I'm grateful for the offer to come along. But that doesn't mean it's a good idea to test my limits. Do I make myself clear??"

I shot a look at Tess, then back at Amy. "But we..."

"Eh-eh-eh." She stepped further into the room, and shook her head. "That's not being debated right now. I've set a ground rule, and given you a sort of a tip. All I want to hear right now, is that you understand me."

Another look. "Yeah, we got it, Ms D," Tess said, and I said something affirmative as well, Tess hurried back into her own room, and after a few minutes we met at the elevator to go down to the lobby.

Yes, Amy DeLuca was the chaperone, and *we'd* invited her along. (Partly to reassure my parent's, and Liz's and Alex's, that it was alright to let us go, but still.) What she was saying made sense.

And if it killed us, we were gonna have to find some way of evading her watchful eye and fooling around together again. In that very room, if possible.

==========

"So," Kyle said, reveling in the moment, walking through a pretty tropical town, (probably a town that had been built specifically to appear pretty to American tourists,) with a beautiful girl. Michael had been watching protectively over his sister ever since she arrived in Roswell the day before, so much so that Kyle had started to doubt that he'd ever get to spend a moment with Laurie without him watching, but when everybody else had split up and Michael had gone with Maria down to the restaurant, nobody had seemed to pay any attention to either of them, and it hadn't been hard at all to suggest a little sightseeing. Laurie had smiled brightly at him and agreed right away.

"Yes?? Were you going to follow that 'so' with anything at all?" she asked, and Kyle laughed.

"Yeah, but I don't really remember what it was," he admitted, and Laurie laughed softly for a moment, then put her hand over her mouth, as if she wasn't sure that she should have been laughing at him. "Um, okay, I have a question, though it actually might not seem polite."

Laurie blinked. "Well... oh, you might as well go ahead. I don't generally worry that much about... about things like that, myself." She hesitated. "Well, umm... I dunno, actually. Give me a hint?"

Kyle thought about it. "The category is... family history."

"Hmm... well, you do remember that my relationship with my aunt and uncle was incredibly traumatic and all, what with getting involuntarily committed. I'd really rather if you didn't..."

"It's not about that, really. Hardly at all, though there's maybe a very vague connection."

"Oh," Laurie thought, and turned around a corner onto another street. "Okay, go ahead."

"Well... um - how did you grandfather get so rich in the first place?? I was just kinduv curious about that detail... especially since I've heard of at least one other multimillionaire UFO abductee."

"Oh, rhat." Laurie smiled. "You had me worried. Well, it's kind of a long story, and not that interesting, but well... it started in early 1947, not long before the crash, and a little while after he'd been abducted. Granpa was working as a prospector in North New Mexico, near Red River."

Kyle smiled. "So he struck gold??"

"How... how did you know?" Laurie was smiling widely.

"Lucky guess. I wanted to be a prospector too, when I was a little kid. My mom and dad took it as an educational opportunity... I found out quite a bit about the gold rushes of the southwest... though I didn't think there was a rush on in the late forties."

"There wasn't," Laurie admitted. "But lucky strikes happen all the time, not just in gold rushes. He didn't make a huge amount out of gold, but it was enough to get him started."

"Ahh." Kyle smiled. "And whar did he do next?"

"Came to Tucson, got involved in the cattle industry... he dabbled in a few of the others in Arizona's five C's, but mostly cattle. Did pretty well, got out in... um, when I was seven, so that would've been nineteen eight..."

"Sorry, which five C's?" Laurie looked at him, and Kyle shook his head. "I could really have waited for you to finish before I asked that, couldn't I?"

"Well, yes. But it's okay," she assured him. "Cattle, citrus, cotton and copper... and the climate - as in tourism. He never really did much with that last one. And, just to finish my thought... ee-nine."

Kyle blinked, and then put it together. 1989. "All right. Gold, then cattle and diversification. Sounds simple enough... also sounds like he was pretty lucky."

Laurie nodded. "I suppose."

"It also sounds, just maybe... as if the aliens might have tried to give him something back," Kyle said. "Whether that was leading him to the initial gold strike, or helping him know what to do with it... or maybe they didn't have anything to do with any of it. It's kind of hard to say."

"Yeah." Laurie nodded. Kyle realized that they seemed to be heading towards the beach, and smiled. "So, tell me something about yourself, Kyle," Laurie suggested. "Something that not many people on this trip no, maybe. If you can think of anything that fits that desciption that you *want* to tell me."

Kyle thought about that, and frowned, not quite sure what to say. "Back in my first year of Junior high, before I got good at sports, um, I was a huge fan of those, um, those adventure games, you know? With the throwing dice, and the hand-sketched maps, and god help me, even a few miniatures."

"Oh... role playing games, dungeons and dragons, that kind of thing?" Lautie asked, smiling ever so slightly.

"In that ballpark, yeah. Even AD&D itself a few times, but more often... um, pirate's gold, and Galactic traveller." Kyle chuckled ironically. "It seems pretty dorky to me, looking back, but... I guess that there was something missing after my mom left, and becoming some great brave hero in another land let me get away from it for an afternoon."

"Well, we all need a little escapism sometimes... isn't that kind of what this trip is about?" Laurie asked. A few secnds later she called out, in a louder voice, "Oh, hi Liz! Sean!"

Kyle jumped slightly, and realized that they had definitely left the town behind, walking along a path that passed by some public flower and shrub gardens, or something like that. Presumably this path connected the town and the seashore, because it was still heading in the direction where Kyle heard the sound of the water... and because maybe forty feet away and heading for them up the path, were Liz and Sean. Kyle smiled and kept on walking until they met.

The other couple was definitely wearing less than Kyle and Laurie were... Liz was in flat sandals and a dark purple tank swimming suit, some kind of clips in her dark hair, changing the patterns in which it fell down behind her. Sean was wearing his sneakers, a pair of baggy, hawaiian-shorts type trunks, complete with a goofy palm tree pattern, and a towel looped up around his shoulders and behind his neck. "Um, hi guys," Kyle said, fighting the urge to stare at Liz - there were at least three good reasons not to gawk at her in this moment. "How's the beach?"

"Um... absolutely lovely," Liz said, blinking in some surprise at the question, and maybe at seeing Kyle and Laurie together in the first place. "Any chance you could let us know what we're in for if we continue on this way? I kinda just convinced Sean to turn because the flowers smelled nice."

Kyle chuckled at that, and Laurie jumped in to answer the question. "Quaint and fun little Bahamian town. I wasn't paying a great deal of attention to which turns we took, but it shouldn't be hard to find your way back to the hotel through town, if you want to."

Liz shot a look at Sean, who smiled. "We'll play it by ear, maybe," he said, and Liz nodded her agreement. "See you guys later I guess." And they passed Kyle and Laurie, heading further up the path.

"And what about us?" Kyle asked her. "You wanna loop back via the beach?"

Laurie hesitated a moment, looking back the way they'd come, they way the other two were going. Then - "Sure, I'm game if you are!"

Kyle smiled and started walking again.

==========

"It was incredible," Isabel told the others. "The brilliant blue sea all around, rising and falling gently in easy waves. Little white boat, little more than a dozen people, including the instructors. Going under the water carrying nothing but the swimsuit on your back."

"I'm sorry - just how is that fun?" Tess asked. "I'm glad you enjoyed it, but I don't see the appeal. Swimming above the water, sure, fine. Scuba diving and snorkeling... alright, you've got something to help you breathe down there, even if it's just a little plastic tube. You've got something to help you see, to help you move around. What's the attraction in trying to stay underwater without any of that? Just a stubborn insistence to conquer the ocean on its own terms?"

Alex and Isabel shared a look, but neither spoke at once. The six of them had met up in the hotel lobby late that afternoon, and watched the sun set onto the water together, at which point Max had suggested eating a late supper together. Nobody had really been in the mood for the hotel restaurant, so Kyle suggested a place that he had seen in town, while out walking with Laurie.

"I... I'm not sure I can explain what I found fun about it," Isabel admitted, after taking a bite out of her grilled fish steak. "It started off very simply, just getting into the water and practicing how long we could hold our breath. Someone said that in a usual freediving course, that part would have started in a swimming pool, but I don't think I'd have liked that so well. Then we started to move into challenges, like getting from point A to point B without surfacing in the middle, or swimming all the way under the boat. There was an instructor watching in scuba gear when people were trying that one, just in case someone got disoriented and trapped underneath the hull, not knowing how to reach the surface and breathe. And they dropped weighted lines off the boat, so that we could try pulling ourselves down the line hand over hand." She smiled and looked out the window of the restaurant, at the darkness falling beyond.

"What I guess Izzie is too modest to say," Alex put in, "is that she was amazing at all of it." Isabel blushed slightly. "Well, maybe not *amazing* at the under-the-boat trick, though she did do it... she's not as strong a swimmer as some of the guys that were along for this trip. But she was in the top three for holding her breath, and the other two had done it before several times."

"Hmm..." Max considered that. "May be a perk." He didn't say a perk of what, but everyone who was there pretty much knew what he meant.

"Yeah," Isabel admitted. "I even got to try this ballast-rigging thing they had... kind of like a wide belt that was wrapped around my midsection from waist to..." With her hands, Isabel indicated about an inch below the lower curve of her breasts. "Normally, the rig is heavier than water and helps keep you down below water, maybe even drags you down slightly, but not enough that it's hard to fight the weight of it. But if you want to come up, you just push one of the waterproof buttons on it, and the whole thing kind of puffs out and expands. Instant buoyancy, and you start to rise again. That was fun."

"Sounds like it," Laurie said. "I might like to try, though I can't hold my breath for very long."

"Well, there's the catch," Alex admitted. "They wouldn't even let *me* try the belt, though I thought I was doing pretty well with the breathing exercises and all that. But I can kind of understand that they didn't want to give it to someone who might get in trouble, someone who might go deep for too long by accident and not have enough breath to make it back." He shrugged. "Or maybe the fact that Isabel is hotter than mehad something to do with it too -- in which case it wouldn't hurt to try, Laurie." She laughed in pleasure at that.

The conversation turned next to other possible activities at the resort. Kyle said that he'd seen some cruise boats in the harbour that would take people on an all-day tour of some of the nearby islands. The notice board in the lobby had had stuff about a sand castle contest, and scavenger hunts and craft sessions, a small beauty spa not far away, and a bunch of different sports facilities.

"I saw these rafts out on the beach, from our window this morning," Tess said after the dessert had been ordered. "Well, off the beach, maybe eighty feet from shore. Close enough that you can swim to them pretty easily, but the water's probably fifteen feet deep. Makes sense... a place to hang out and rest out of the water when you've been swimming, without having to go back up on shore. They didn't seem terribly crowded either."

"Yeah, we passed one of those on the free-diving boat," Isabel agreed. "They even had a snack bar on it."

"Oh, I've so gotta try one of those out," Kyle said.

"By the way," Tess said. "Isabel, Alex, something we gotta tell you on operation chaperone-watch. DeLuca the elder kinduv busted Max and me, up in his room this afternoon." She flushed a delicate pink. "I heard her coming in time to avoid really getting caught in the act, but I'm not sure she was fooled. So we probably shouldn't try anything tonight... Michael and Liz can take their chances if they want, but..."

Isabel blinked slightly. "Well... is no big." She looked affectionately at Alex and giggled. "We've got plenty of time."

"Hey, come on," Laurie said conspiratorially. "You never know when you'll get an opening. Since Kyle and I are rooming with the Chaps themselves, we can try to pass you a signal... like, if they should happen to slip out for a long, moonlit stroll."

Tess grinned at that thought. "Okay... maybe. If it looks like a really good opportunity."

"Yeah," Isabel agreed. "But let me make this clear - none of us want to know exactly act you and Max weren't quite caught in the middle of."

"We don't?" Alex joked. Isabel swatted with the forehand of her arm into his side.

==========

"So, hanging out at the pool with Michael all afternoon, and then a movie in his room?" Liz summarized with a smile. "Sounds pretty cool."

"Yep." Maria nodded. "Oh... I probably shouldn't brag, but how great an idea was coming here??" She let out a little squeal of excitement.

"Pretty good, I have to admit." Liz sighed and snuggled down among the sheets, loving the softness of both the hotel linen and her light flannel pj's against her skin. The sheets here were so much comfier than in the Ramada in Dallas, when she went there with her parents to the Novelty Restauranter's convention. July of 1998... had it really been nearly three years ago? Anyway, the sheets there had been a little satiny, like you could slide right off them. Not terribly fun to sleep in. Same with the hotel near Orlando, when she'd gone with her Aunt and some friends last summer...

All of a sudden, there was a noise. One knock, then two close together. It was a code that had been arranged a little earlier - 'the coast is clear.' Maria got up and looked out the peephole - the sound had come from the door onto the corridor. "Nobody there," she whispered. She looked again, and Liz guessed that she was staring at the door right across the hall - where Michael and Sean were staying. "Should I??"

"Give it a try," Liz said, feeling a thrill of excitement. Maria slipped out, leaving the door ajar -- and only moments later, someone else came in. Sean, wearing an old pair of dark blue sweats. (Old Navy, Liz realized with a mental laugh, but not like the brand name. Just old, as in been around a while, and navy, as in dark blue.) "Okay, what's going on?"

"Laurie didn't tell us much," Sean admitted, smiling slightly at her as he came in and leaned carefully against the dresser. "Something about Lobo and Amy going down to the bar for a nightcap. It could still be dangerous for both of us, if I hang out in here. Do you want me to stay?"

Liz hesitated, then threw hesitation out the window and acted on impulse. "Yeah, Stay -- in face, come closer." She pulled her knees up in bed and gestured to the foot of her bed, and Sean came over and sat down there. "I like your sleep-sweats."

"What, these old things?" Sean looked down at what he was wearing and then turned his nose up, and Liz laughed at the gesture. "Now you, on the other hand, are really looking exceedingly cute."

Liz looked down shyly. "Really?" She could hear the uh-huh sound that Sean made, though she wasn't looking at him. "Just how cute??"

All of a sudden, he was next to her, lifting her chin up tenderly and looking into her brown eyes with his dark blue ones. "More than cute enough to make me want to... want so badly to..." He couldn't seem to say what she wanted, but Liz saw a little bit of it in his expression, and smiled. He kissed her, first gently, and then with a little heat. Liz let all of the breath that she hadn't noticed she was holding, go out her nose, and wrapped her arms around Sean's strong shoulders.

In the guys' room, meanwhile, Maria and Michael had already been locking lips far more intensively for about a minute. Michael brushed some of Maria's hair out of the way and she knew what was coming next. Maria LOVED what was coming next.

Sure enough, Michael's lips left hers, tracing the line between cheek and jaw, and kissed her right ear in the way that always made her feel weak. He sucked on her earlobe, first delicately, then with a little more negative pressure. Maria moaned, more loudly than she'd meant to, and her right hand stretched out blindly, squeezing what it found.

Michael stopped in mid-suck, and she looked around, a little confused, to find out why. Following his gaze, Maria realized that what she had squeezed was very nearly between Michael's legs... and defintely bulgy. Very suddenly she let go and pulled her hand away.

"Hey," Michael quipped. "It's not like I had a problem with you going there..."

"N--noted for future r...rreference," Maria managed to stammer. "But it was an accident, this time. Sorry if I, uh, I got your hopes up or anything."

Michael opened his mouth to say something more, but right at that moment, the door opened and Sean hurried back in. "Your mom's coming!" he hissed in a near whisper.

Maria wasted a fraction of a second being grateful that the misunderstanding had ensured they weren't in a more embarassing position when Sean re-entered. Then panic asserted itself. Maria hurried up and went for the door, but Sean stopped her. "No, she might see you that way." And he pointed to the only other exit - the adjoining door, into Laurie and Amy's room.

Maria changed course so sharply she nearly stumbled, finding that door not locked, and hurried through. Laurie wasn't in the room. Had she been on watch against either of the chaperones coming back?

Maria closed and locked the adjoining door, and headed over to the one that led into the hallway. She looked through the peephole just in time to see her mother walk into view.

Room 304, the one she was in now, was right at the end of the left arm of the T corridor, so its peephole had a good view of all the hallway doors to the other five rooms. Maria wondered for a moment where Jim Valenti was. If they had gone down for drinks, why was she coming back up without him? Maybe Kyle had managed to distract him.

The tension of her predicament was still considerable. Maria had to find some way to sneak into 305, her room with Liz, or to some other place that wasn't terribly incriminating, before she was discovered sneaking around, or hiding in this room, adjoining Michael's. If her mother stepped into one of the other rooms all the way, she could probably get around the corner without being detected. If she was in Michael and Sean's room, someone would probably have to close the door or she'd be noticed slipping in across the hall. But Michael would find some way to do that, right?

First, she spot-checked the girls and boys further down the hall... Maria had heard that Max and Alex, Isabel and Tess weren't planning on trying anything this evening, so they should be okay. Her Chaperoney-ness didn't step into either room. Then she headed down, moving straight towards Maria... and there was a fairly loud thumping noise from inside 303, from Michael's room. Amy hurried to that door, and inside, and a few seconds later the door closed. Maria made her move.

"Ooh, Mar!" Liz exclaimed softly. "I thought you'd been caught, or were gonna *get*. What was that noise?"

Maria headed quickly for her own bed, turning out the one lamp on the way. "I'm not sure... it came from Michael's room, while I was hiding out at Amy's."

Liz considered this for a few seconds in the dark. "Diversion, to attract her attention. Probably knocked a suitcase over hard."

Yeah, that fit, Maria decided. A moment later, her mother made a cursory spot check of her and Liz, and wished them good night.

==========

"Good morning, spaceboy."

Michael groaned, pulled himself out of bed, went over and opened the door. "Hi, Maria." He rubbed his eyes a little, looked at her - and did a giant double-take. "Your... you've done something different with your hair."

His phrasing probably qualified as understatement. Yesterday, Maria's tressed had been a rich, fairly dark caramel brown, falling in soft waves and curls well past her shoulders. Now... "Um, how the heck did you manage to do that since I saw you last?" Maria shot Michael a somewhat disappointed look, and he was just quick enough on the uptake to add a bit more to his reaction. "It looks great -- very cute. Try not to mind me, I'm still half asleep."

Maria smiled, and made a gesture out of extending her arm, just past Michael, and after a second he realized what she meant and stepped back so she could come into the room. She sat on the edge of his bed, looking into the room.

Her hair was now nearly straight - well, about as straight as human hair of that length gets, and much lighter - a blonde color, generally, though there seemed to still be a few deeper, richer brown tones underneath, and some faintly silverish highlights. It was also noticeably shorter, though not enormously - falling in curtainlike locks down around her neck, slightly layered, with some of the longest strangs brushing against her collarbones or the to of her back, though none were long enough to reach actual shoulder. It was definitely more than just a 'cute' look... the style somehow set off Maria's subtly exotic beauty, and gave her image a decidedly sexy edge, Michael decided. But he was still confused about how she had changed so quickly.

At that moment, Maria seemed to realize why Michael was looking at her like that. "Ohh! You want the story?"

"Umm, kind of, if there's a story to be told," he said with an affectionate smile.

"Not much of one, but okay. I woke up around quarter to four in the morning, and couldn't get back to sleep. I guess I can't really blame jet lag because we didn't exactly travel very far east, so just sleeping in an unfamiliar room, an unfamiliar bed, and general excitement I suppose. Went down to the resort lobby, then started to explore the building. There's a salon, somewhere on the ground floor near the gym, and for some flippin' reason it was open, at four thirty in the morning! No other patrons of course, just one pretty bored stylist, and I kind of felt sorry for her. And that got me started thinking, I've been wanting to try something new practically ever since we got back from Vegas, and I never seemed to get around to it at home, and if I came back during the day they'd probably be busy, so I went in and livened up her night. Guess I'm really lucky that we didn't both fall asleep at the wrong moment, because that could have been really bad, but I *really* like how it came out! The only downside is that I'm not supposed to get it wet for thirty-six hours, because of the straightening treatment and color rinse, so that means no playing around in the pool today or tomorrow I guess. Or swimming, or small craft boating I guess. But still... um, maybe you should say something at this point, sweetie?" She smiled that I'm-sorry-I-know-I've-been-babbling smile.

"Um, cool," was all that Michael could manage at first. "You look really hot like this," he blurted out.

Maria looked surprised, and Michael wondered for a second if he was going to get swatted, but Maria grinned appreciatively. "Wh thanks, sexy. Flattery will get you most places." Michael chuckled. "Well, I'm hungry - do you feel like breakfast?"

"Sure... I think that the hotel restaurant had 'American Morning' specials... pancake stacks, scrambled eggs, slow-cooked oatmeal porridge..."

"Sounds great, but I don't really feel like going down... right this second." Maria giggled. "Maybe order room service?"

"We're not supposed to be in the room alone together," Michael pointed out weakly.

"Well, no danger of that," a new voice said. "Sean and I are here too." Michael looked up... Liz was leaning in the open doorway, and Sean had climbed out from under his covers and was propped up on one elbow.

Michael smiled. "Cool... Someone else find the menu and figure out some good things to order. I'll ask Laurie if she wants to come in too, k?"

"Yeah," Maria called softly, and nobody else objected.


TO BE CONTINUED...
Read my other roswell stories!

"A man does not make his destiny: he accepts it or denies it. If the Rowan tree's roots are shallow, it bears no crown." From 'the farthest shore', Ursula LeGuin.

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Chrisken
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Post by Chrisken »

Part Seven

"Hey, could you pass the... yeah, that." Kyle had handed Isabel the little bottle of hot sauce before she had even finished asking for it. She sprinkled some on top of her belgian waffles, tried a bit and smiled. "Mmmm...."

"So, what do you think, honey?" Alex asked. "Go on the island cruiser today, if we can still get tickets for it?"

"Sounds heavenly," she mumbled through another bite. "Sorry." Swallow. "Mrs DeLuca, would you like to come along??"

Amy thought about that. The four of them had decided to go down and eat breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Jim Valenti was up in Michael and Sean's room, eating with everyone else who had elected to go for room service. Max and Tess had wanted to try a little coffee shop a few blocks away. "Yes, I'd like to, but not quite sure if I'll be able to.... the life of a chaperone is not always a happy one."

Kyle thought about that. "But the more people who are going on the boat instead of something else, the more reasonably you can hang along and keep us company, right?" Amy thought about that, and nodded. "Well, I'll come, and I bet if we ask the others we'll get other people who are interested too."

"I'll head over to the office on the pier first thing after I finish eating," Alex put in, "Ask about how many tickets we might be able to get."

"Well... thanks, guys," Amy said with a wide smile. "That's so sweet of you."

"Ahh, call it a little thank you," Kyle insisted. "We do appreciate that you're here, and for one day at least you should be able to do what you want, instead of just tagging along with whoever seems to need adult supervision the most."

She accepted this with a little nod. "Any idea how long the trip is, Isabel??"

"Umm... no."

"The hotel brochure said four to four and a half hours," Alex put in.

"Fairly long time to spend on a boat," Amy commented softly. "But not *too* long."

==========

"Tennis -- feel like playing some tennis??" Sean asked. Liz considered that one.

"Tennis is a maybe," she finally decided. "I've learned a few of the basics, but it never really seemed like a very fun sport somehow."

"Okay... your turn to suggest something?" Sean said.

"Hmmm..." Liz considered. "Put our suits back on and just head out to the beach??

"Well... has potential," Sean admitted. "Partly 'cause you looked really hot in that thing." Liz giggled. "But I think today was the day that the sandcastle geeks get to own the beach."

"Ohmigawd, now we HAVE to go," Liz exclaimed. Sean shot her a dubious look. "Come on -- I *rock* at building sand castles... or at least I used to. And I seem to remember a certain sculpture that SOMEONE made of the Lone Mountain of middle-earth, on a multi-family trip to California. Who was that... Alex? No... I don't think it was Alex. Hmmm..."

"Okay, yes, that was me," Sean admitted, in an odd mixture of annoyance and pride.

"The sand castle thing is open to anybody, right?" Liz said, and Sean nodded. "And if we get bored with that, we can go into the water or hang out on one of the rafts."

Sean sighed and gave in. "Okay, okay, fine. The beach, and I may even help you if you wanna try a sand sculpture."

Liz giggled. "Cool." Sean got up, resumably to go back to his own room and change... assuming that the last of the breakfasters had cleared out by then. Well, if not he could change in the bathroom. Liz decided to taunt him, just a little. "Oh, and Sean? If you thought the tank I wore yesterday for our stroll along the beach was hot, then you'll REALLY love the bikini I bought just before we left Roswell.," Sean looked back at her, paused for a moment, and swallowed. Liz couldn't help but dissolve into giggles as he left.

==========

"So, what *do* you want to do this morning, that won't be too hard on your precious new hair?" Michael asked, trying to mask his annoyance as much as possible, and mostly succeeding.

"Ummm... I dunno, maybe just hang around here and play cards or something. Oh, dammit. Chaperone's rules."

"Well... we could try asking Mister Valenti if he wants to join us," Michael said a little doubtfully. "Won't be quite as much fun that way... but I'm up for it if you are."

Maria thought about it, and smiled slightly. "Doesn't sound too bad to me at all. Hey, Mister Valenti!" He'd just walked past the door of Maria's room, which was open. "Want to stay up here this morning and play some cards or something?"

Valenti stepped into the room, considered, and then smiled. "Sure, alright. Either of you kids ever played Zzhwicky-zoo?"

Maria laughed. "You just made that name up right now, didn't you?? Zwicky-zoo?"

"Zzhwicky," he corrected her, putting an emphasized zj sound at the beginning. "It's a real game, well, around fifteen years old or so at least. Doesn't take long to learn, fast and fun, plenty of bluff and psychology and sudden reversals of fortune. I can teach it to you."

Maria wasn't wild about the idea, but Michael said "Sounds cool to me!" And his smile was so wide and irresistable that Maria decided to give it a try for twenty minutes or so, at least.

"Okay, who's got a deck of cards?" Jim asked.

"Pretty sure that Liz packed one," Maria said, running over to her best friend's suitcase and opening it without any sense of worry. Liz had just left, (and Michael hadn't been able to avoid staring at her bathing suit until she'd been nearly out the door,) so Maria probably wouldn't have been able to catch her and ask permission before she and Sean made it to the beach.

==========

"And coming up on our port bow, you can see Cannonball island," the tour guide on the pleasure cruiser babbled on. "A place with a storied history going back to the Bahamas' buccaneer days. One of the most bloodthirsty pirate gangs to sail the salt seas made their hideout there for eight and forty years. Yep. You've probably never heard of Redbeard the merciless, but if you had, you'd be impressed right now, because right over there was his home harbour. And yes, the predictable stories say that there's still buried treasure somewhere on the island... maybe as much as two thousand ounces of gold bars, several dozen cut ten-carat diamonds and rubies, and a few priceless Elizabethan paintings. Of course, I'm not sure that I believe that part of the legend myself, but it's hard not to wonder, isn't it? And before anybody asks, no, we can't put ashore on the island and have a look for ourselves." There was a little inane laugher at that remark.

I stalked up the stairs to the top deck of the ship, hoping to avoid the voice of the tour guide, even though I expected the sounds system had been designed to make him inescapable. Sure enough, there were plenty of speakers up on the open-air deck, as he started to talk a little bit about the distinction between buccaneers and privateers, and other types of pirates, But a little experimentation seemed to suggest that if I leaned against the railing on the starboard side, three quarters of the way towards the stern of the boat, it would be considerably easier to avoid him. Tried this. It was easier.

"Hey, Evans." With surprise, I realized that this tactic had brought me right next to Kyle Valenti. Whether Kyle had also been following the same strategy to avoid the tour guide's voice as much as possible, or just happened to be leaning by the railing there through a freak chance, I couldn't really tell and didn't worry about it.

"Hi, Kyle." I said. After a moment, adding "How's it going?" seemed like a good idea.

"Oh, not bad I guess," Kyle admitted. "Little surprised to see you up here without Tess, actually - the two of you have been practically inseperable lately."

I took a moment to think about Kyle's observation, wondering specifically if Tess and I were so obviously in the honeymoon phase of a new relationship. The verdict -- possibly. It was still a little hard for me to judge things like that objectively, because my personal yardstick for judging relationship stuff, even yet, was my awkward courtship with Liz, and I didn't feel about Tess the same way I had felt about Liz. As far as that went, everything that happened between Liz and I was the sort of the thing that, really, could never be repeated... and that was a good thing in some ways. I didn't really want to go through the bad parts that I'd been through with Liz again, with anyone else.

But I'd certainly been spending a lot of time with Tess. Since we'd left for the islands yesterday, it had been easy to get into the pattern of hanging out with her a lot, especially since nearly half of the people we were here with - actually, no, I'd been counting up things a bit differently than I should I guess. Michael and Maria qualified as a long-established couple by now I think, by the standards of our group. Alex and Isabel were definitely in the honeymoon phase themselves, wanting to be around each other just as much as possible. Sean and Liz... were kind of in the same awkward place as Tess and I maybe... not sure how serious they were, on one side at least, but easily swayed one way or the other by peer pressure. Jim and Amy had been on-again, off-again for about a year and a half at this point, and seemed to be definitely jumping on this chance to go on again, as much as their chaperone duties would allow. They'd been on for perhaps two months at this point, now that I thought about it. And that only left Kyle... and Laurie.

"Yeah, I guess maybe we have," I admitted. "But she's hanging out with Isabel and Mrs DeLuca down at the snack bar and listening to every word the tour guide is saying. I... well, I kinda felt like I needed some air."

Kyle considered this. "Hmm. Was Laurie with the other girls?"

Not exactly subtle, buddha boy, though it's not like I really care about subtlety. "Actually, last I saw her, she was talking with Alex, near the bow of the lower deck where we came on. Kinda seemed like she was pumping him for background info on *someone.*" I let Kyle absorb the potential significance of this for a moment. The ship had three decks, and the snack bar was on the second, at the stern near the stairs.

He smiled slightly, hopefully, but didn't say anything, and I decided to push the issue. "You like Laurie, right??"

"He said, as if Tess hadn't told him I said so already," Kyle muttered.

"Okay, she did." Shrug. "Still nice to get it straight from the source, after all. And you guys seemed to be getting along together alright last night."

"Yeah, we did," Kyle admitted. "Haven't even really got the chance to flirt with her... well, that's not right - I've had chances, but I dunno... maybe I felt afraid of scaring her off. She's been through a lot, I know, and in some ways she reminds me of... of a hourse or something." I raised my eyebrows at that. "A skittish horse, ready to bolt and maybe hurt herself the first time something scary or unexpected happens."

I thought about that. "Well, to some extent I can see what you mean. She's slightly on the jumpy side of normal - may be like that for quite a while. But I don't think that anything would really go wrong if you let her know how much you like her."

Kyle nodded. "Thanks for the advice, I guess."

"Now, what are you two boys whispering about??" I turned around slightly at the familiar voice, and saw Tess approaching from the direction of the stairs.

"Just giving Kyle a little help with his love life," I joked, and Kyle shot me a dirty look, which I tried my best to shrug off. "You decided to leave the girls?"

"Just thought I'd check in with the guys, and make sure you hadn't got into too much trouble without us," Tess quipped, slipping an arm around my waist. "Oh, boy, there he goes again!" The tour guide was rambling on about some kind of special coral reef that was here in the vicinity. "Give it a REST already!! We can't appreciate all of this stuff for what it is while you're *yakking* about it!!"

Suddenly the narration broke off in midsentence, a little awkwardly. "Umm, actually, I think I'm going to *take a little break* at this point, why don't you folks hang out and enjoy the scenery, errr... and I'll get back on the horn once we come around towards Georgetown." Kyle shot a fairly intense stare at Tess, and she blushed when she realized that the tour guide, down on the first deck, had actually heard her outburst.

I smiled a little... no-one else seemed to mind the absence of chatter, so maybe she had just spoken the truth that was on a lot of other people's minds. "Hey, let's go down and look for Alex," I suggested. Kyle gave me a look -- wondering if I was deliberately providing a chance for him to meet Laurie again without saying so. Maybe I had been, a little, but mostly I just wanted to hang around with Alex a little. Amy Deluca fell in with us as we passed the second deck going down on the stairs, and Isabel was with Alex and Laurie, the three of them sitting on a bench, facing the flat 'stage' area where the tour guide had been sitting, before he had vanished through the door that led into a tiny employee cabin. So, once we met up, it was a group of seven, which was big enough to be a little unwieldy. Kyle said hi to Laurie and asked her if she'd like to go up and appreciate the view from deck 2, which she agreed to.

"So, Max," Isabel asked me. "Do you think the poor guy will actually have the nerve to come out again when we reach Georgetown, if Tess is sitting right here?" Tess looked a little pained, but I resisted the first impulse to jump in and come to her rescue. She wanted, I thought, to be accepted by the group more than she had been last year, to be treated by Isabel and Michael just like they treated the rest of their closest friends... well, this kind of teasing was part of it. Isabel probably wouldn't have made a crack like that if she weren't warming up to Tess, and it was a relatively tame tease. Tess wasn't exactly thin-skinned, and she could learn to take it in good humor -- if I didn't shelter her.

"I dunno... he sounded awfully embarassed from what I could tell over the public address," I said, walking a fine line between answering Izzie's question at face value and teasing Tess just slightly myself... erring on the side of the former. "Maybe we should stick around and find out."

Tess shot me a unimpressed look... then smiled and laughed silently herself.

==========

"Okay, your majesty, what next? Try to get the parapets on the south side in some kind of order?"

Liz looked up from where she was working on trying to sculpt a sand gateway (or gatefront, at least,) that wouldn't completely collapse. That side of the castle was definitely still looking a little rough. "Yeah, sure, good."

Sean sighed slightly, then bent down and started working. Liz got up and looked at what they had accomplished so far... a traditional English castle with a few nontraditional quirks. *Oh no...* The thought struck her suddenly. Wa this what she thought Windsor castle would be like on an alien world? Or whatsit... Buckingham?

*They're changing the guards at Antar palace... Krysshivar Nobben went down with Zjalisz.* She sighed to herself, repeating the rest of the rhyme under her breath by habit. "Zjalisz is marrying one of the guard... a soldier's life is so terribly hard."

"What the heck was that?" Sean asked. She hadn't meant for him to hear, but obviously she'd been at least loud enough to completely confuse him.

"Umm... on second thought, why don't we take a break and hit the water??" Liz asked as brightly as she could. "We're both a little tired and cranky I think, and not really having fun with this anymore. Play in the water a bit, maybe hang out on the nearest raft, and then come back to it fresh."

"We might come back to find it in ruins," Sean pointed out, and Liz nodded to concede him the point. Somebody who'd been part of the staff for this 'sand castle festival' thing had marked out a plot of sand for them, indicating where they could build, and sit or stand to work on what they were building, without inconveniencing anyone else. (Liz had wondered why the plots hadn't been drawn up ahead of time, and decided that the officials were making judgement calls involving team size, evident experience/commitment to their project, and how many other teams were standing around waiting for space at that moment.) Within their assigned space, nobody else was supposed to touch or interfere with what they had wrought, but that didn't seem to be too rigidly enforced by the officials, who could hardly be expected to remember who had been assigned where, and a few arguments had broken out over entries that had been damaged while they'd been left alone for a while. Also, the wind could hardly be expected to honor human rules.

"So maybe there'll be some damage, and we'll have to decide if we clean it up, or not bother." Liz said. "But I'm not going to stay here watching this castle just because we've put a little effort into it. Not on my vacation! It's just a sand castle - it's supposed to be fun, not just a big investment of effort."

Sean stood up and shrugged. "Well, I'm up for a swim if you are, sure." His eyes lingered appreciatively on Liz's slender figure, clad only in a fairly skimpy green print bikini. Liz wondered to herself if Sean would try to get a little bit... um, full-contact with her, when they were both in the water. Well, she didn't mind that in general, as long as he didn't go too far. She might make him work hard for it too.

They navigated around a few other people's sand castle spaces, (the aisles between them for such purposes were pretty narrow,) and Liz led the way into the gentle surf. The water was pleasant, also slightly itchy in an odd way, that might be because it was salty ocean water.

Sure enough, just when she'd got far enough that she was having to swim instead of walk on the sand beneath the water, she heard Sean coming up behind her quickly. He could move faster, being taller than she was and able to get a better grip on the bottom. But Liz waited, then playfully ducked her head under and swam as quickly as she could to one side. Sean couldn't have anticipated that move, but he did manage to lightly grab one of her feet before she was out of reach, and held on to it gently but firmly enough to keep her from casually kicking free, until she ran out of breath and had to surface, awkwardly. "Hey, ppthb, cut that out, okay??"

He let go, and Liz turned around to face him, treading water and letting herself drift slowly out to sea, which was partly away from Sean and partly to her right at this point. He followed her easily.

"What..." Liz couldn't figure out which question she had started to ask him, so she abandoned the sentence, incomplete at that one enigmatic word. "Sean... I have to admit, that sometimes I'm not sure whether I can figure you out... or even what I'm trying to figure out."

He laughed softly. "Maybe you should stop trying then, and just accept me at face value."

"Yes, but what's your face value?" she pushed. "Sometimes you love pushing the macho, guy's-guy image, the bad boy. And then, you turn around and show me that you have a sensitive side too, that you want to turn your life around and you're not sure exactly how. And I think you're not sure if I fit into that part, about getting away from whatever it was that landed you in jail and living clean, but you like me so much that you're afraid to face that question. I don't even know where to start with you, because you're different from... well, from everybody that I know, I mean really know as opposed to the people I see every day and wave at but don't know anything about them."

Sean smiled sadly, thinking about that for a long moment. "Well... I guess I probably am different. Do you think you know anything about me?" Liz considered. "If you say 'no,' I guess I'm probably going to have to find a way to open up some."

"A little," Liz allowed. "Not as much... well, say, not as much as Kyle, to pull an example out of the rest of my life that I don't think falls into entirely inappropriate ground for a comparison. I think I'd like to know more."

"Cool," Sean said. "And, as far as that goes, I think I'd like to know more about you."

The phrase suddenly shocked Liz as much as if the water around her had become as cold as ice. Here she was, talking about knowing somebody else and wanting to know more -- but there was this huge part of her life that she hadn't found herself able to even hint at to him... the alien secret part. If things got more serious between them... would she ever tell him? Could she? Would she need to get the approval of the others, of Max, since it was really their secret, their lives that were at risk from somebody new knowing it much more than Liz's. Or could she manage to keep it a secret from someone that she was dating on a long-term basis?? Because the fact was, if it wasn't Sean, it would probably be someone else. Liz wasn't going to get back together with Max Evans anytime soon, and she probably wasn't likely to date Kyle or anyone else who knew. And she didn't exactly intend to grow up an unloved spinster maiden.

Well... maybe it'd be easier, if she left Roswell to go to university, and didn't see Max and the others as much. They'd become a less important part of her life, and the new challenges she was taking on would be more... would be common ground that she could share with some other guy. But... well, it was a little too early to be worrying about boyfriends at university. For one thing, she still had senior year to worry about. And she really did like Sean and didn't want her secret to throw a wrench into whatever was going on...

What was going on... Liz noticed that the water seemed to be higher. The waves were lapping at her chin, and one ran high and flooded into her mouth... salty and unpleasant. What *was* going on?? It was impossible that she was getting less buoyant, wasn't it? That didn't make any sense... her body was the same as it had ever been, of course. Maybe the water was getting lighter? No, that didn't make much sense. "Whads... what's going on?" she managed to sputter.

"Umm... you're caught in a rip," Sean guessed. "A mild undertow." Yes, that made sense... she could feel a strong, persistent tug in the water around her, pulling her downwards and outward. "You're supposed to move crossways to get out of one of those... don't panic or anything. Just..." He moved slightly, orienting so that he was perpendicular to the shore, from Liz's perspective. "I'm outside the current... just move slowly and come to me."

Liz giggled softly, remembering that not getting too close to Sean was how this whole thing had started... but the rip current was freaking her out just enough that Sean copping a feel, (if he decided to,) didn't seem nearly so bad at all. She swum as strongly as she could, and in just a few seconds, the tug of the current had eased. Sean wrapped his arms around her, but kept his hands on her back and neck, in safe territory. (Would wonders never cease!) "There, that's better," he whispered near her ear. "Wanna head for the raft?" He pointed, off at an angle and away from where the rip tide had caught Liz, she was glad to notice.

"Sure." It didn't take them long to approach the raft, which was a nice big one, maybe twelve feet by fifteen, and only had a little more than half a dozen people on it already. Liz realized that she was actually disappointed that Sean hadn't made a move -- so, mischievously, she pinched his bottom just before making a dash to the raft and hauling herself out of the water too soon for Sean to quite reach her.

She watched as he pulled his own lean frame out of the water, and came up to her, trying to act as if nothing special had happened between them just then. "So... now what - sunbathing??"

==========

"Okay, there's a chair in the closet, and on the chair, is a rope and a can opener," Michael reported.

"Get it all," Maria reported.

"If there's a chair," Mister Valenti decided, "they shouldn't be calling it a closet." The two teenagers turned to look questioningly at him. "Well... most of the time you don't sit down in a closet, do you?"

"You put a chair in the closet sometimes to store the chair," Maria pointed out. "Not as furniture, just because you don't want it out anywhere else in the house. Try sitting on the chair once the other stuff is picked up, Michael."

"Yeah, working on that," he grumbled, using the little plastic stylus on Alex's palmpilot, on which he'd found this adventure game -- after the three of them had gotten bored of card games. "No, not TAKO or t-a-k-g, *take*, you stupid thing. I can't figure out how it expects me to write an 'e'."

"Want me to try?" Jim offered.
breakfasts, but still..."

"I could go for something to eat," Jim agreed, and Maria took a moment, then nodded in agreement.

"So what, room service again?" Michael asked.

"No," Maria decided. "Maybe the hotel restau... no, not that again either. Maybe look for someplace close by in town? I mean, if that's okay with you guys."

"Alright," Valenti agreed, "but maybe some of us should get changed before going out." The three of them had spent all morning in the things that they'd slept in, and Maria giggled a little uncomfortably when she realized that.

"Kay, I'll grab a shower and get changed, and meet you at the T ASAP," she promised.

"That means not quite half an hour," Michael interpreted for Valenti, as they left for their own rooms.

"Hey, you don't need to translate 'DeLuca' to me, Michael," Jim shot back with a laugh. "Not after spending this much time with Amy. It would have meant almost exactly the same with her" Michael laughed.

As it turned out, both of their guesses were a little high, or maybe Maria heard them joking and decided to speed up her getting-ready process a little just to keep the guys off balance, because it was only twenty-two minutes before she showed up at the corridor junction, ready for Bahamian culinary adventures. Then she had to go back to Michael's room to get him, because he'd been waiting on his bed rather than standing around 'looking like a geek' in the hallway.

They'd only been looking for a few minutes before spotting a small cantina with a big sign promising 'CHICAGO Style Pizza & Traditional SOUP,' and unanimously agreed that they had to try it. The pepperoni & hot peppers pizza wasn't quite what would have been served as 'chicago deep dish' style in Roswell, but all three of the hungry tourists liked it, especially Michael, and the creamy fish, vegetables, and rice soup was very good too.

"So, any idea what the two of you want to do for your afternoon?" Jim asked as the meal was drawing to a close.

"We could just go back to the hotel and tackle that computer game," Maria suggested.

"Ehh, I dunno," Michael said. "Now that I've got a bit of fresh air in me, I'm not so wild about spending the afternoon cooped up in a little hotel room peering at a tiny little PDA screen. You can go back and do that yourself if you're really wild about it, but I'm not sure if I wanna come along for it."

"Hmm..." She considered. "What then?" The part about 'what is there that I won't have to get my hair wet for' was unspoken between the two of them.

"Umm... I dunno, I'd like to see more of this island," Michael decided. "Somewhere further afield that we could get by walking. I dunno if that means renting a car just for the afternoon, or trying to find a tour bus that's going somewhere interesting..."

"Hmm... has potential," Maria admitted. "I might want to go back and swipe Alex's palmpilot to play the game if there's a boring stretch of drive."

"I wouldn't stop you," Michael laughed.

"Okay... well, I think there's a little bus station not far from the hotel... we can go check it out first, and see if there's anything we can get on. Mister Valenti, are you in?"

"Umm... maybe," he decided. "Think the two of you can probably behave find on a bus trip, and I'd want to take into account the return time of the trip. Kind of was hoping to be able to see Amy when the pleasure cruise got back into port, or not long after, you know??"

"Umm, yeah," Maria replied, unable to completely supress a blush. "Got it, chief."

They went down a total of three wrong streets trying to locate the bus station, but found it eventually, and found out that the only tour leaving in the next two hours was one headed for Fort Sufferance, the oldest British garrison on this half of Long Island. It would be leaving in fifteen minutes and not returning until mid-evening, since it was a long drive, scheduled for a fairly long tour through the old fort, and would be stopping off briefly at two minor attractions on the way back. Michael looked at the others.

"Sounds good enough to me," Maria decided. "And I guess this is where we part ways, Sheriff - or back at the hotel, maybe. I can definitely make it there and back in fifteen minutes."

"Alright," Jim said. "I'll let your mother know when she can expect you to come moseying back to the hotel... though there's an off chance that neither of us will be around just then." Michael nodded knowingly.

"Are you coming back with me, or staying here and meeting me when I get back?" Maria asked Michael. "It's all the same to me."

Michael considered that for a minute, then shrugged. "I'll stay here, buy our tickets. You just make sure to get here on time."

So she blowed him a kiss and hurried off into the mostly-empty town streets. Jim looked at Michael, shrugged, and headed off after her at a more sedate pace.

==========

"Jim!!" Amy stepped slightly faster down the cruiser's short gangway once she had recognized her sometime suitor waiting on the dock. "How... how sweet!" It wasn't quite clear whether she was speaking simply of Jim Valenti being there to meet her, or the fairly impressive bunch of pink small-blossommed flowers that he was holding, and that he now made a big show of presenting to her -- or both. Alex traded a look with Isabel as they came down the plank nearly side by side. (There wasn't quite room for two to walk exactly abreast.) Amy threw her arms around Jim, careful not to damage her surprise bouquet in the process.

"So," Jim said after he had finished hugging and kissing Amy hello, and she was happily smelling her flowers. "How was the cruise?"

"Pretty good," Kyle said. "The guy who narrated the travelogue was kind of annoying, but he overheard Tess complaining about him and shut up." Jim raised an eyebrow and looked at the young girl that he had taken under his roof for the year.

"I... I didn't mean to embarass the guy or anything," she protested. "And I apologized when he finally came back out. It was just a stray comment, and I got a little bit too much volume and intensity off it, and forgot that he could still hear me from two floors down. Two decks down, whatever you call it."

"Your timing kind of sucked, Tess," Laurie put in. "Because I would kind of have liked to hear more about that place... The pirate hideout -- Cannonball island. We went back past it again while the tour guide was sulking."

"Well, I imagine that there's somewhere we can go to find out a little more about it," Kyle said quickly. "Umm... some kind of library with local history stuff, pirate appreciation society, I dunno. Somebody help me out here."

"We'll see if there's anything under 'privateer information' in the hotel directory," Alex quipped.

"And we cruised all the way around Long Island," Isabel said, "and by Georgetown harbour, and just kind of went out into the ocean for no good reason at all. Cool trip."

"Alright," Jim replied. The eight of them had started to slowly walk back towards the hotel.

"Where are Michael and Maria?" Max asked. "Seen or heard from Liz and Sean??"

"No, no word from Miss Parker or Master DeLuca since they went off to the sand castle contest," Jim explained. "I went by to see how it was coming, but they weren't at their spot and building didn't seem to have finished." Max's face fell. "Don't worry. They probably got a little bored and headed off to do something else. They'll turn up by dinnertime I expect. As far as Michael and Maria, I expect that they're halfway to Fort Sufferance by now - Michael wanted to go on a bus tour somewhere, and that was the only one that was available."

"Oh, cool," Tess said. "Glad that that dye job of hers isn't keeping her away from ALL the fun. I mean really, what's the point of coming to a tropical island really, if you can't go near the water?"

"Well, it won't be for much longer," Amy pointed out. "By this time tomorrow, she'll probably have gone swimming in the ocean for the first time, I expect. Oh, speaking of Liz and Sean... Hi guys!!" Sure enough, the two of them were sitting together talking, on a bench by the side of the path that they were walking down, and looked up when they heard Amy's voice, and got up to join the group. However, the addition of two new people to an existing crowd of eight somehow resulted in a critical mass that kept any of them from moving for about a minute.

"Okay, listen up," Jim said after Liz had had about a minute and a half to talk about the sand castle contest, getting caught in a rip tide, and the beach raft, while Sean stayed remarkably quiet. "I have something to ask you kids. Now... I was *hoping*..." and he shot a look over at Amy, and she smiled and looked down into the bouquet again. "Hoping to be able to take Amy out to a quiet dinner in town tonight, just the two of us, without having to hurry back or worry about our chaperoning duties. But the *only* way that is going to happen... is if you kids agree to behave, not get into trouble... and not do anything that both of us wouldn't let you do if we were standing right next to you."

There was a slightly shocked silence. "Umm... no deal," Isabel quipped. "No romantic dinner for the two of you, unless you sweeten the deal a little!!" Liz laughed softly and stepped closer to the taller girl in a show of solidarity... in fact, just about all of the kids seemed to be making some small show of support. Amy groaned.

Jim raised an eyebrow and met her gaze levelly. "What kind of -- 'incentive' did you have in mind?"

"Umm..." Isabel hesitated only for a second. "Military code. You don't ask - we don't tell."

"No way," Amy insisted. "We need to have *some* kind of guarantee. We took on responsibility for you kids - Jim and I made implicit promises to your parents. And if... if anything were to happen..."

"Like what?" Tess asked. "Like one of us poor naive girls gets to start eating for two?"

Amy nearly whirled on Tess. "It happens. Never think that you're so smart or so clever that it couldn't happen to you."

"Okay, fine," Liz said after a moment. "No... no *anything* that could get anybody knocked up. I think we can agree to that, right guys??" There was a general murmur of agreement.

"We'll even let you two out of that part, as a nod to your greater age and maturity," Isabel smirked. "Use your own best judgement there. The rest of us will stay clear. Anything else??"

Jim and Amy shared a long look. "Nothing that'll get you, or us, in trouble with the hotel," Jim warned.

"And you all have to have had a balanced meal - in public, no room service - by the time we get back," Amy added. "I guess that's about as much as we can ask for."

The kids exchanged a few looks. It was clear that the attached girls were taking the lead in the negotiations... possibly because the guys were more nervous about arguing in favor of getting time alone with girls, than the girls were about fighting for time alone with their men. Ms DeLuca's final tactic might be a maneuver to reduce the amount of time that couples could spend together in private... or might be honest coddling mothery-ness. Either way, it didn't seem like too much of a consession to make.

"Nice doing business with you," Tess said, sticking out her hand to Amy seal the deal. Jim shook with Liz, and then with Isabel. And then started leading the way back to the hotel yet.

"Oh..." Laurie shook her head, confused. "So you're not leaving yet??"

"Nah, it's a bit early." Jim sighed. "And I want to go back to the room, dress up a little... maybe make a few arrangements." Amy looked at him, smiled, and nodded.

"Well, I could eat," Liz mentioned. "And I haven't really had a chance to try the hotel restaurant yet. Anybody wanna join me?"

"Sure I guess," Alex said, and Isabel nodded. "What did you and Sean do for lunch, anyway, Liz??"

"Ehh, not that much," Sean put in. "Packed some leftovers from breakfast and ate them on the beach while sand castling. Bummed a few snacks from somebody who'd managed to tow a cooler out to the raft, using this gizmo to make sure it'd float upright. What about you guys? Was there a snack bar on the cruiser??"

"Yeah, not a bad one actually," Isabel commented. "Pretty good sandwiches."

Jim rolled his eyes and started to work out just how soon he and Amy could leave for dinner. Amy went over to Sean and Liz. "Now, if Michael and Maria show up... you can explain the deal to them. I think they'll probably go along with it, yeah?" Liz nodded.

Tess went over and whispered something to Max. "Well... yeah, we can go to eat somewhere in town too, if you like," he told her softly... "but are you asking just because Liz is going to be at the hotel restaurant??"

"Perhaps," she admitted. "She hates my guts, and I can't stand being around her knowing that."

"I'm not sure it's that bad," he said. "It's an awkward situation... and I don't really like hanging around with Sean much lately, but seems like staying away from each other isn't going to make anything any better. Why don't we ask them if they mind? If they say it's okay, then we go to the restaurant too - otherwise, we go to town."

Tess considered for a moment. "Okay... you can ask her if you want."

Max nodded, then raised his voice slightly. "Liz, Sean! You guys mind if we come along to the hotel restaurant with you?"

They shot each other a look, and then Liz shrugged. "Umm... no, not really, I guess. You might as well."

"We're gonna need a pretty big table, then," Kyle said. "You coming too, Laurie?"

"Umm, yeah, I guess. Might as well make it a big party." She laughed nervously.

TO BE CONTINUED...
Read my other roswell stories!

"A man does not make his destiny: he accepts it or denies it. If the Rowan tree's roots are shallow, it bears no crown." From 'the farthest shore', Ursula LeGuin.

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Chrisken
Obsessed Roswellian
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Post by Chrisken »

Part Eight


Note: I think the rating is ADULT starting this part.

Alex smiled as he left the hotel restaurant, Isabel falling into step next to him, and taking his hand into hers. For a moment, they walked together, towards the elevators. "Umm, so..." Alex mumbled nervously. The scene of Isabel leading the negotiations with their chaperones was still flashing through his head. His throat worked and swallowed all on its own, apparently.

"Relax, honey," she teased. "We don't have to do anything that you don't wanna do."

Alex smiled a tight smile and pushed the button to ring for the elevator. "Well, I'm not sure entirely what I *do* wanna do." Alex looked over at Isabel, smiling, and he could see that there was a smile on her face too. "Certainly we can go up to one of the rooms and hang out alone together, since even that much is theoretically verboten."

Isabel turned to him and grinned, and at that exact moment the elevator dinged, as if it was the look on her face that had actually generated the little ringing bell sound, which made Alex start laughing. A split second later, of course, one set of the mirrored double doors slid open, and they hurried in. Isabel tapped the 'close door' button right after 3, and surprisingly enough it seemed to work, cutting them back off from the hotel lobby and anyone else who might want to ride along. Alex felt a slight tremble in his knees as the elevator car began to move upwards.

Isabel looked into his face for a moment or two. "Any idea which room we should go to? Yours or mine, as it were, though neither of us has a room of our own."

Alex thought about that. Either Max and Isabel would switch rooms, or... he decided that for him to be in 'Isabel's room' with Max and Liz next door in Max's, just seemed a little creepy. Maybe because it gave the subconscious impression that all four of them were back at the Evans' house in Roswell. So... "How about you come to mine? I think that when Liz and Max are done downstairs, she's a bit more likely to take the lead and bring him to her room, ie yours."

Isabel grinned. "Okay, sounds good. I'll just want to duck into my luggage and grab a few things just in case, and then I'm all... well, I'm all yours anyway, no matter which room I'm in." She giggled fetchingly, tossing her long hair slightly.

The doors opened at that point, and Alex stepped out into a corridor that was deserted. "Mind if I ask what kind of things?" Isabel smiled secretively. "I just asked because if you're talking about protection, by any chance, I don't think we should count on using it. Wouldn't be cricket with the promise that Liz made to Maria's mom on our behalf. Those... nothing's a perfect defense, even in the best of ti..."

"Yeah, yeah, I know that," Isabel agreed. "On board. No full Clinton sex, even with condoms." She considered a moment. "Though it wouldn't be inappropriate to have some around, as the last line of defense, in case something... um, if we get really too carried away and, erm, you know. Better to be mostly safe than not at all. And for the record, I didn't have any to pack."

Alex laughed. "Erm... me neither, though, umm... maybe we can check if anyone else did."

"I was talking about completely different kind of stuff," Isabel continued. "Things that we can use and appreciate without going any further than kissing, I think."

By this point they were at the T, and Alex decided against following Isabel as she slipped through the door to her own room. He left the door to the room he shared with Max open as he went in, wandered around a bit, locked the door from Kyle and Mister Valenti's: not quite sure why he had done so, except that he didn't really want anyone interrupting them from that direction. He had noticed something wrong with one of his own suitcases and crossed the room to investigate by the time Isabel walked in.

"Um, is something wrong honey??"

Alex looked up at her with half a frown. "My suitcase isn't the way I left it, and someone stole the m130... my old palmpilot. Could it have been someone in the cleaning staff, ripping us off?"

Isabel leaned down, stroking the zipper of the case, stiffened slightly, and chuckled hollowly. "News flash... it was Michael. Not sure what he'd have done with it, but he and Maria stayed later here at the hotel than any of the rest of us. He probably took it on the bus trip... either that or maybe it's in his room."

"You... you saw him taking it, with your powers?" Alex confirmed, and Isabel nodded. "Was probably looking for some digital games to play." He sighed and let the subject go for the time being.

Isabel straightened up, a contented look on her face, and took a step and a half backwards. Alex wasn't sure if she was intentionally giving him a great chance to admire her, but he took the opportunity. His girl was still wearing the casual clothes that she had gotten dressed in that morning... a white tank top, tight designer jeans, and brown leather boots. Her blonde hair was gathered into a ponytail, which was new... she hadn't been wearing it that way earlier, but then he found ponytails sexy, and she might well have figured that out and made a point of wearing one to wind him up before they fooled around.

It wasn't like she really needed to do anything extra to get him excited... Isabel had been driving him crazy all day... the way her face practically shone in the island sunshine, the fact that her tank top was just thin enough to make it completely obvious that she was wearing a black bra underneath without revealing any other details. His breath had caught more than once on the boat, when he happened to get a good look at her ripe and lush bottom, snugly and lovingly surrounded by taut, straining blue material...

"D-do... do we go fast or slow?" he managed to stammer out.

Isabel grinned. "Slow. Will make it sweeter when we get there, and we've got plenty of time."

Alex wasn't honestly sure that it'd be sweeter, but he decided not to argue against her decision. "Okay. Gin Rummy?"

Isabel laughed, and then got a mischievous look on her face. "Alright. Where are the cards?"

Alex produced a pack, and the two of them sat facing each other on the carpeted floor of the room. Isabel took the cards when he offered them to her, shuffled, allowed Alex to cut, and then began to deal.

They chatted casually over the first few hands, not really keeping score, talking about their friends and what they'd eaten for dinner, and what the rest of the summer might be like after they had to go home to Roswell. All of Alex's nervousness seemed to drain away. When things were good between them, Isabel was like one of his closest friends as well as a girlfriend... she understood him in ways that were sometimes verging on the spooky, and most of the time knew exactly what to say to put him at ease. That is, if she *wanted* to put him at ease...

After the third deal, it was Alex's turn to shuffle, and Isabel stretched slightly. "Alright, that's enough warmup. Strip gin -- whatd'you think?"

Alex blinked. "Umm... not opposed to the idea certainly. But how would it work?"

"Winning a hand by knocking is worth one piece of clothing, to be taken off by the other party. Going gin or undercutting somebody else's knock is worth two. Once somebody is naked, the other can demand other consequences or dares instead of clothing." She sighed slightly. "It's not a perfect model I know, but trying to fit odd points in seems too complicated."

"Doesn't have to be," Alex argued. "Every group of thirty odd points on a hand, either through knocking or going gin, is an extra item of clothing. Not likely to apply too often, but that kinda fits in with the rest of your system."

Isabel grinned. "Okay, I'll agree to that one. Deal the cards."

"You haven't cut yet," Alex reminded her, putting the deck down on the carpet in front of him. Isabel concentrated on the cards, and they cut themselves, one batch floating up into the air and down next to the rest of the deck, and then the second half rising up to sit on top, completing the cut process.

Alex blinked, then picked up the cards and started dealing out. He often forgot Isabel's alien powers in typical social situations: until she did something like this to show them off. "Now remember, no peeking," he muttered softly.

"I promise," Isabel insisted. "It's no fun that way, after all." Somehow Alex wasn't entirely reassured as play began. That nervousness carried over into his play, as he should have expected that it was. Second-guessing was never good in gin rummy, and he kept taking foolish chances, keeping a pair of nines longer than he should, trying to build runs when the rest of his hand was working with sets. The deck seemed determined to go against him, and it really wasn't long until Isabel rapped her knuckles, silently, against the carpet. "Ten." She had made a set of four queens, a run of the two-three-four of hearts, and had an odd seven, two, and one as dead cards.

Alex was able to lay off a four of hearts, but he still had sixteen dead points himself... not terribly bad, but more than enough to give Isabel the hand. He sighed and slipped off a shoe, grateful that it didn't mean anything more than that... for the moment.

But gradually Alex buckled down and got his competitive edge back. He was good at gin rummy, having an intuitive and associational mind that quickly made sense out of the bewildering patterns of the pasteboard, (as far as any sense COULD be made,) and a devious knack for deception that slipped past even Isabel's talent for reading him... about half the time. Once he caught her by surprise with an undercut, laying off most of his cards against sets and sequences that he knew she had to declare, and slipping one or two odd points under the eight-point or higher counts that she liked to knock in.

After six hands, though, Alex was still behind, having stripped bare to the waist, keeping his dockers, and his boxer shorts on underneath. Isabel still had three items, her top, bra, and panties... having started with one less item than him to start, not wearing any socks... but then, Alex hadn't had any undershirt to compare (however approximately) to the bra. And it was Alex's turn to deal again.

"Any ideas what you want to do tomorrow?" he asked, not sure if he was trying to distract Isabel from the cards... or to distract him from her long, smooth legs, and the little scrap of bright red silk sitting right where her legs ended.

"Hmmm." Isabel picked up a black six. "Not sure really... maybe spend a lot of time out on the beach, sunbathing... spend a little time swimming in the ocean and maybe go out to one of those rafts. What do you think about that?"

Alex pictured Isabel lying out in the sun, wearing a skimpy bikini and maybe rubbing some kind of tanning oil over her exposed skin. He wondered whether her suit would be any bigger than the panties and bra she had on at the moment... (even though he wasn't quite sure what the bra was like until she took off the top.) "Umm, err, yeah, I've got no problem with that at all. Might take a book or the palmpilot out to the beach."

"Good," Isabel continued while waiting for him to play, and then taking a blind pick from the stock herself. "Don't take this the wrong way, but a little sun exposure could do you good. You don't really have quite enough color to look your best."

"I tend to avoid the sun... everyone in my family burns really easily," Alex admitted.

"Really?" She smiled and picked up a discard. "I'm the same way, a little. Love lying out in the sun, but my skin is really delicate so it's easy for me to get too much without noticing. The good side of that is, I've got some practice in keeping a burn from really settling into the skin. Just stick close to me and you'll be fine."

"That won't be a problem," Alex assured her, making his own play... though something seemed odd about that picture. Not Isabel tending to his wounds, as such... that was a thought that made him smile. Maybe it was just the idea that Isabel would be particularly subject to sunburns. He tended to think of the pod squadders as physically perfect human specimens... handsome, or stunningly beautiful... athletic without being too-obviously buffed and muscled... the picture of health, to the extent that they'd never even gotten colds or sore throats. It all seemed just a little bit too perfect sometimes... like they had been purposefully given the best bodies that humanity had to offer, just in case that might help them keep hidden or convince someone to help them out of a tight scrape. A tendency to sunburn wasn't a particularly important defect or anything, but it did seem to detract from that sense of perfection... in a good way. It made her seem more human... flawed as the rest of the species was.

"Speaking of your little palmpilot, are you going to be able to recharge that?" Isabel asked him quietly. "That one's got its own built-in battery, right? Can't just go down to the store, buy a new double-A energizer and slap it in. I thought you had to hook it up to the computer to recharge it."

"Normally, that's true," Alex admitted. "But just before we left, I was able to get ahold of an outlet recharge cable for it. Just plug that into the wall overnight, and it'll be fine." He thought for a moment. "The outlets here are the same as back home, right??"

"I think so... my hair dryer didn't have a problem this morning."

"Aren't there already hair dryers that came in the hotel bathrooms??"

Isabel made a slightly embarrassed face. "Yeah, but... well, not trying to sound valley girl snobbish or anything, but they're completely cheap, generic, hurricane models! Really hot air, on only one speed setting - blast. And, well... because I had an idea that that might be what was available, I packed my Ionic Solano." She shrugged a little awkwardly.

"Okay... sorry, didn't mean to jump on you about it," he said, laughing. "You're *totally* not a Valley girl, of course." Isabel giggled. "And that is... gin." He laid out ten cards in three matched groups.

"Gin?" Isabel exclaimed, her face falling. She looked more closely at her own cards than she had before in the hand. "Dammit, I could've knocked last turn at least... and I can lay off both of my odd cards against your groups."

"Except that..."

"...you can't lay off anything against gin," Isabel sighed. Gin meant that she had to take off two more things, out of the three items she had left, which meant that she'd be naked either above or below the waist. "Well, I guess this is where the peep show gets interesting. Want me to stand up for this?"

"Umm... it's up to you," Alex said, smiling broadly. "I wouldn't object or anything."

Isabel breathed heavily again, but it was hard for Alex to tell if it was from disappointment, or building excitement, or what. She did rise to her feet, and step back from the cards a little. Her shoes and designer jeans were already sitting in a little pile on the floor, the pants folded up relatively neatly. She hemmed with her fingers in the vicinity of her torso for a while, clearly trying to make up her mind what to remove first. Then her fingers caught the hem of her top and pulled it over her head, tugging her arms out of the sleeve holes and starting to fold it. Alex couldn't help but stare at the curves and soft swells of her chest, held in check only by a black lacy bra, not a particularly skimpy one, but still the view was awesome. And then he remembered that she still had one item to take off... bra, or panties. Probably she would choose the bra first, though Alex supposed he couldn't be entirely sure of that.

By now she had finished folding the tank top up, put it on top of her jeans, and looked down at him. "Okay... ready or not here I come," she mumbled, softly.

"You don't *have* to go through with it," he said softly, teasing a little. "I'll still respect you if you back out."

Isabel's eyes flashed.... apparently the insinuation, even joking, that she'd default in such a situation was something that she couldn't endure. "Go through with this," she joked back, popping open the clasp in the middle of her chest, and shrugging out of the bra. This was territory that he'd never glimpsed, not even that time they fooled around before leaving Roswell, and he was entranced by the sight of her perfect round, bouncy tits. Without even thinking about what he was doing, Alex rose to a standing position himself, and stepped towards her, one hand open and held up at just about chest height on her.

"Hey!" Isabel backed away just slightly. "You haven't earned a consequence yet, and you haven't asked or so much as kissed me, so I don't exactly think you get to touch my puppies just because you can see them," she joked.

"Oh, um..." Alex swallowed, several times in a row. "You're... you're right of course, and I apologize. Wasn't... wasn't quite sure what I was thinking of... well, maybe I am, I just don't have a better excuse for why my common sense didn't speak up too."

Isabel laughed. "Do you want to ask??"

He had to think about that, and thinking was very hard, (as it were,) at that moment. Alex wasn't actually too sure why he *did* have to think about it, but he refused to just go through the simplest obvious route to pleasure gratification until he'd thought of it. "Umm... are we going to be playing more cards?"

Isabel considered that for a moment. She seemed to be better able to concentrate than he was, at least for the moment. "Yeah, I'd like a chance to catch up, as it were. Let's play at least until somebody's naked, which might only take one more deal. Then we don't have to go further."

Alex sighed and tried to get his thoughts in better order. "Then I'd probably not." If he started touching and fondling Isabel's naked breasts, it would probably only cloud his thinking further. "Your turn to deal now."

She did, and they played through the next hand quickly. Isabel was quite unfairly teasing him by now, licking her lips and running hands over her own exposed skin. She knocked early, probably hoping to catch Alex by a margin of more than 30 points, but she didn't quite make that... the difference was 28, and so Alex only had to take off his pants. "Dammit," Isabel muttered. "Shoulda held out for... for gin." She had lost her place in the middle of the sentence when she saw Alex's boxer shorts... and the stiff bulge that was pretty clearly visible underneath them. "Umm, err..."

"What is it?" Alex asked, looking into her suddenly contorted face.

"Umm... could you, uhh... I dunno, run into the bath and grab me one of the hand towels?" Confused, Alex did so, tossing the little while towel back to her from the restroom door. His eyes widened, baffled, as she arranged the towel so that she was sitting squarely on top of it.

"Figured that it would be better to, um, to leak on this than the carpet, or the bedding for that matter," she half-explained, blushing a very vivid red.

"L-lea... Izzie, if you need to use the, um, the can, then of course..."

"No, it's not that," she insisted. "Wouldn't help - not for long anyway. Though it might be a good idea." She got up, leaving the towel where it was, and hurried past him into the lavatory. Only a few seconds later the toilet flushed and she emerged. By that point, most of what she meant had occured to Alex.

"Uh, wow," he mumbled, sitting down opposite her. "I mean... well, I'd heard of that kind of stuff, in magazines and, umm... and on the net and what-not. But I guess I'd never thought of it in real-life terms, that you would... would get wet down there, over me."

"Believe it, sexy thing," Isabel whispered back. "Come on... one more game. This is for all the marbles."

It was a hard-paced grueling match, each of the two of them about equally distracted. Alex tried to tease Isabel back, with mixed success... she was about as likely to start laughing as opposed to gazing at him with lustful eyes... but if he made her laugh, that seemed to distract her from the play about as well as anything she did to him. Neither wanted to give up any advantage, and that made them each very cautious about picking up discards, and the pack had actually run out before either of them had knocked or gone out.

"Okay, right," Alex muttered. "What happens now?"

"I... I think it's a do-over," Isabel muttered. "Which sucks."

"Really, really sucks," Alex said. "How about we do sudden death right here? Do-over in case it's a tie, but we both just lay down at the same time?"

Isabel grinned. "I'm game if you are."

Alex had fourteen deadwood, and Isabel fifteen. "Okay, good enough." She managed to shift her weight to one arm, use the fingers of her other hand to slip off her panties and toss them towards Alex. For a moment they just sat there, looking at each other, she completely naked. "Alright, so what do we do now??"

-----------

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure they're in there," I said, slipping through the door into Tess' room. "I heard some voices through the door. Couldn't say for sure that I recognized either of them... but really, who'd be in the room I share with Alex but Alex, and who would he have with her but Isabel?"

"Makes sense," she agreed. Tess was sitting on her bed. "I think Isabel's suitcase wasn't open when we left for the boat, so she's probably been in here already and grabbed a few things. Which means hopefully, that she won't need to come back for a good long while."

"Yeah, that'd be good," I agreed, coming over and sitting next to her. "Um, so... what next?"

Tess got a little shy smile. "Well, I was kind of hoping that it'd be possible to pick up more or less where we got so rudely interrupted yesterday!"

"We got interrupted in my room," I pointed out. "Not to nit-pick excessively, but..."

"That's not what I meant." Tess sighed and shook her head. "In... um, in more or less the same point in the action that we were at then, okay?"

"Yeah, sure, that's... that's fine with me," I said. Something seemed odd way back near the base of my head, though. Yesterday... I'd been excited from spending so much time being right next to Tess on the plane, and our hormones had kind of carried us away. Did I really want to put myself right back into that situation? Tess was really hot, and I liked her, and thought that we might have a chance at something that would last. But... as much as a part of me liked the idea of making out with her, and messing around and having sexy adventures... was that really the best way to proceed? Sure, this was a great opportunity for some fun, and I didn't really want to let it go to waste, either by persuading Tess to do nothing, or by saying something that would get her mad with me. But how far was I really ready to go?

But that was really what it came down to. A request to start off where we had been yesterday seemed like it was pretty much reasonable, and I was a little bit afraid of getting into a fight if I refused. "So, um... we were..."

"Well, we were sitting on a bed, just like this," she reminded me in a lilting voice. "And, um, and I had my shirt off..." Tess wasn't wearing a button-up blouse today like she had been yesterday, just a pink t-top shirt with a V neckline, and she nearly scrambled to pull it free and toss it away.

I managed to put my hand on hers and shush her, whispering 'slow down,' but only after she was done. She looked across at me and giggled sheepishly.

"Sorry, guess I was just excited."

"That... that's okay," I insisted. We sat like that for just a moment, and I looked at her. Felt a little funny with her sitting just in her bra, (above the waist,) and me not having taken off any clothes. Well, that was exactly where we'd been before, and I hadn't felt weird then - why was that? We'd been kissing before she took her blouse off yesterday - did that make a difference? I leaned in to kiss her, soft and passionate, on the lips, and the funny feeling did recede.

After kissing her for, oh, maybe for about a minute, I pulled back to look at her. She was wearing a different bra, than yesterday... okay, that much just stands to reason, but it was a pretty completely different *kind* of bra, as well as a physically different item. Instead of white, cotton, and relatively modest, we were talking about black lace, so thin it hardly seemed to be there at all, and offered fairly skimpy coverage. I could feel my breath race, and pulse pound in my throat. She was ravishing, exquisitely desirable. She wanted this, and so did I. I reached out and cupped one breast through the fabric, just like I had yesterday, and brushed my thumb against the stiff little peak that was poking against the lacy material. Tess groaned, a low, deep, seductive sound.

Caution. Whoosh, it's windy in here! You get the picture. I pressed my lips against hers again, smiling mentally as her perky tongue slipped into my mouth. Both of my hands went to her chest, stroking, massaging, rubbing softly, and tweaking. It wasn't long before my hands were actually squeezed between my chest and hers, because we were both kind of pushing towards the other, and that made things a little awkward. I was still trying to rub through the bra, and that's kind of when it happened.

There was a faint ripping sound, and I got that 'oh, no' feeling in my head. Moved my mouth back and away from hers, and looked down. I'm still not quite sure how it happened, but the fabric of one of the lacy bra cups had ripped apart. "Umm... whoops?"

"Hey, no big," Tess insisted, reaching up behind her back. "In fact, it counts as a pretty impressive move I think."

"Want me to..." All of a sudden, the fabric fell even further away from her chest, and I realized that she must have undone the clasps in back. "Umm, to see if I can, you know, fix it? With, umm... well, whoosh."

"No offense, but you'd probably just make things worse," she decided with a teasing look. "I'll take a look when I can and see if it's worth the effort to repattern. In the meantime..." She reached out, pulling the black lace entirely away from the contours of her pert breasts. "We don't really need it right now, do we?" She put the bra down on the dresser next to her bed, and stared straight at me, her eyes widening slightly.

I swallowed hard, struck by the intensity of that gaze. (A small part of my brain wondered if Tess had somehow managed to tear the bra herself, or arranged for me to rip it, as a clever excuse to take it off... but I wasn't convinced that mattered terribly.) Her beauty as she sat there next to me was like a charge, a shot of mild intoxicant to my system, and I couldn't deny that I had wanted her to take it off, too. I rubbed one breast again, soaking up the sensation, the distinction of her bare, luscious flesh against the skin of my fingers, then bent down, gently pushing her back so as to give me a better chance to explore this new territory. "You're gorgeous," I muttered, simply because she was and I wanted her to know that I thought so. "I've never felt quite like this before."

I caught a quick glimpse of her smile in peripheral vision. What I'd said was true enough, and suddenly I realized that Tess must be comparing herself against Liz, would probably have been doing that every time she and I had been alone together, for a long long time. Because she'd had feelings for me back before she came to Roswell, and when she got her she found out that I thought of Liz as my soulmate... and possibly still did, even though I didn't believe that she'd be the girl of my dreams forever, the one I hoped to marry and, eventually, would be the mother of my children. I still hoped that Liz could be an important part of my life, a good friend, if we managed to get through the awkwardness of the post-breakup alright, but... well, I suddenly realized that my thoughts were going further afield and shut down that train of thought as best I could.

Tess deserved to know that she was the one in my heart, the girl who I felt passion and desire for now. Bending close to her chest, I examined it closely... the moderately shallow valley of cleavage between her breasts, the soft and creamy pale swells of them, the way her flesh curved and gathered appealingly around the edges of her bosom, and the stiff, rosy protuberance of her nipples, surrounded by small circles of rough, raised, pinkish-brown skin. Nervously, I pursed my lips and blew cool air at her left nipple to see how it would respond. It strained a little bit as if trying to grow even higher and not being able to her, and then there was a lot of small rippling motions in the area as Tess shivered and shuddered, and an aroused moan burst out from her lips, helplessly.

"Did you like that?" I asked softly... guessing the answer, but wanting to hear a confirmation... wondering just how she would phrase it, if there was anything else that she'd say.

"I... I loved it, Max, but it wasn't enough, it just made me burn for more," she muttered, a broad smile crossing onto her face. "I... I want to feel your lips on my tits, your tongue, maybe even your teeth if you're careful not to use them too hard. I want you to suck on my nipples, to lick my aureolae, to... to do anything else you want to with them, and then more. Please, Max."

Her words, her seductive (and slightly dirty) pleas sent a surge of erotic energy through my entire system. "Well, since you asked me nicely," I teased her, and bent to bring my face to the other side of her chest, to the right breast. To start with, I stuck out my tongue and dragged it across the top curve of her boob, just about where the fabric would end on one of her sluttier tops... (Oooh, I shouldn't say sluttier maybe, since I don't really believe in judging girls' sexual behavior on what they wear like that, except it sounds sexier than saying 'skimpier'. Hmmm...) At first my tongue felt dry and rough, as if it would abrade and scrape her soft, tender skin. But after a moment, between the sensation and the taste of Tess herself, which was somehow spicy in a muted way, like she was made of white pepper, and a bit of subtle musk and hints of wild violets and tangy orange... well, my mouth started to water is the point, which solved the dry-tongue problem quite quickly. Tess sighed wordlessly, closing her eyes like she was trying to surround herself with the sensation of my touch as closely as she could.

I chuckled softly and decided on my next move - a two-part approach. Reaching out with my right hand, I moved three fingers to the curve underneath her left breast, just in case that side was feeling at all neglected, and started to slowly trace my way up. And with my mouth, I kissed quickly down to her right nipple and suck on it softly. Again, this tasted a little spicy and exotic, different from Liz's breasts, which were sweeter and slightly white-bread-warm-out-of-the-oven... (yes, I've gotten this far with Liz... just because you didn't see us going past kissing doesn't mean it didn't happen.) Daring greatly, I tweaked one side with my fingers, twisting gently and softly, while bringing my teeth into play to gently nibble on Tess' other nipple.

The results were astounding. She let out a low, but loud and throaty cry of desire and hunger that I was worried could be heard in other rooms, and not just the ones my friends might be in. Her blue eyes wild with passion, Tess sat up partially, (bumping my face with the soft flesh of her breast,) and I felt her hands at the collar of my shirt. The next thing that I remember quickly, the blue-green print shirt I'd been wearing was completely unbuttoned and tossed onto a nearby desk, and the snap on my jeans had been undone, though the zipper seemed undisturbed. Tess was... was no longer sitting next to me, but standing about a foot and a half in front of me, her hair shaking and boobs bouncing as she struggled to pull her own tight white jeans entirely off her feet. She hadn't remembered to take her shoes off first, and so wasn't having that much luck, and when she lost her balance I moved over slightly to the middle of the bed, to catch her in my arms.

She looked up at me, smiling slightly, blushing at the nature of the scenario she had presented me with. "Max... Max, I need you," she whispered plaintively.

"Al... alright, okay," I said, reaching a hand downward and sending her narrow heels flying off her feet. (She'd had some problems with those shoes on the boat, though I guess I didn't tell you about that at the time.) "So... so what can I do? Without -- well, without breaking the promise that you and the other girls made to Mrs DeLuca?"

She looked up at me, blushing even more fiercely. I wondered if the same thing was running through both our minds. "Well... umm. This is a little bit awkward, actually. I don't tend to think of myself as selfish, actually, and I wouldn't ask this, if I weren't just so... I feel like I need to, umm, well, you know, to have a big one so badly, and since the usual way to go mutual about it is the one thing that we can't do, well..." Yeah, that was it.

"Come on," I said lightly. "You can't say it to me? I never thought of you as bashful that way."

Tess hurrumphed slightly. She seemed so red now that I was wondering if her face could light the way for a sleigh full of reindeer. "Okay, umm... I'll try to. I'd really like you to... to lick me until I come. You know... down there. Umm, do I need to be any clearer about it?"

"No..." I mumbled, feeling horrible about this. "But... I dunno about it. I... I understand the way you feel, I think, but it... that's a very intimate thing and I'm not sure if I'm ready for it with you. Keeping in mind that we haven't been together that long, and I'm not sure whether I love you yet, and all of that stuff." Her face fell. "But... but maybe I can make you come another way. Do you want to let me try??"

"Umm... alright, yes," she said after only a second's pause. (Just how friggin' horny WAS she, I wondered for a moment.)

"Okay, umm, then, get rid of those jeans," I suggested, and I unzipped my own, chucked off my shoes, and slid the denim off of my legs, though I left my cotton briefs on for the moment. "And... no, let me." Slowly, carefully, I slid Tess' black lace panties off of her, leaving her gorgeously nude. "Okay, erm... lay down on the bed, spread your legs a little, and... um..." She lay down, and I pointed to her smooth, sleek right leg, which was the nearer one to the edge of the bed. "Bend this and pull it up to your chest... yeah, that's it." With the leg pulled up, I had relatively easy access to the private parts between her legs from a kneeling position.

I don't remember all of what happened exactly, or in what sequence. I remember running my fingers over the sensitive skin down there, trying to use my powers to stimulate the pleasure nerves more strongly than unaided human touch could do it, and smelling the rich, sticky fluid that trickled out of her core, and seeing her clitty quiver and shake and poke out at me. I rubbed her clit, softly at first and then, guided by her moans of satisfaction, a little more firmly, coating my fingers first with the available fluid to make sure that the contact would be well lubricated. I reached up with one hand to stroke her soft stomach and play with her breasts again, and brought two fingers together to explore some of the shallower depths of her pussy, concentrating on her with my powers all the time. It wasn't too long before Tess' muscles stiffened, and all of the skin around her crotch flushed pink and hot, and she cried out... over and over and over again.

"Oh... oh, my," she muttered, stretching slightly once it was over. "That was... that wasn't like anything I've ever experienced... pretty obviously." She sat up and wrapped her arms around my shoulders. "Thanks, Max. I realize that you might have felt that you weren't ready for this, but... but I needed it, and I love what your touch does to me." She sighed dreamily. "Want... do you want me to return the favor to you somehow?"

I grinned. Most of my inhibitions had been driven away from the high of seeing Tess' naked body writhing in ecstasy... if she'd asked me again to eat her out, I would probably have said yes this time. And so, this question seemed like a no brainer. "Yeah. Up to you, use your imagination, and tell me how you want me. I really do believe you can be quite a giver, Tess... here's your chance to show me."

Her eyes lit up in the dimness of the room and a determined look crossed onto her pretty face. "Okay, umm... not here." She stood up from the bed, and wiped fruitlessly at where bodily fluids were still clinging to her bare flesh. "I'll clean the sheets up later. Okay... lie down on the carpet, on your back, in the middle of the room. No, don't bother with those." Automatically, I had started to pull my underpants down, just because I thought it would be appropriate to be as nude as she was. "I'll take them off when I'm good and ready. Yeah, that's good." I was settling myself with my feet pointing towards one of the wardrobes in the room, my head towards Isabels' bed. (Tess' bed was against one of the long walls of the room, against the corridor.) "Now, don't move, and try not to say anything unless I ask you a question."

She started by relentlessly teasing me - or that's what it felt like, at any rate. Brushing soft, golden curly hair against my skin, nuzzling with her cute nose, licking briefly with her tongue or kissing and nibbling with her mouth, brushing and tickling with fingertips, rubbing softly with palms, or naked breasts. Every single spot of my body seemed to get a long moment's worth of personal attention... forehead, cheeks, chin, throat and more. Shoulders, collarbone, arms and wrists, chest, stomach, waist, thighs, calves, feet. Finally, eventually, she pulled my underpants down, (slowly, achingly...) and began to focus her activities on my painfully erect organ. Brushing her nipples against the tip of my thing, wrapping her soft hands around the pole and doing her best to make it feel like they were a slick cunt, and finally, when I was nearly about to explode anyway, wrapping her lips around my cock and sucking it.

I was desperate at that moment, realizing that I would only last for a few seconds of her oral play if I didn't do something and wanting it to last thousands of times longer. So I tried a variant of the same nervous control trick I'd used on Tess, only on myself... supressing the usual nervous reactions in that part of my body and then reinstating them just as soon as my rod started to deflate and go soft.

I was just able to catch sight of a clock from where I was lying on the floor, and made a point of remembering the time when I too the nerve block back out. Tess hadn't quite noticed what I'd done, and I guess maybe she got nervous when I seemed to be getting less excited, making a big production out of everything she was doing, licking my member and caressing it with the inside of her mouth, rubbing her perfect tits against my thighs, letting her blonde hair tumble everywhere. I wanted to reassure her that she wasn't doing badly, at all, but didn't want to break the 'no talking' rule, so made as loud a happy moaning as I thought I could get away with.

It was around four minutes after that first time that I checked the clock, that I felt that familiar sensation, and my load shot into the back of her throat. I saw her swallow once, right away, and then she let my rod slip out of her mouth, and she seemed to be moving her tongue around, as if checking to see how much unfamiliar stuff was left, and then swallowed again. "How was that, baby?"

"Amazing, absolutely fantastic." Then I told her what I'd done, to prolong the incredible sensation of her sweet lips around my cock, and she giggled a bit, and lay down on the carpet beside be, resting her head on my spread-out arm.

"I wonder how long we can stay here before Isabel wants to get back into the room."

"Yeah, I dunno." I sighed. "Do you think she'll totally freak if she poked her head in and I was still naked?"

Tess couldn't answer for laughing.

----------

"Hey, Maria!" Maria looked around, startled, as she and Michael had been strolling arm in arm through the foyer of the hotel. Michael strolled a step after Maria stopped, and the two of them swayed back and forth a bit before finding their balance. Maria looked around to see who had called her, and saw Liz stepping up from a loveseat near the entrance to the restaurant. Sean was still sitting on one side of the seat.

"Um, hey Liz," Maria replied, wondering whether to let go of Michael or keep their arms linked. Michael didn't seem to have a big problem with their current situation, so she let it be. "What's the up??"

"Let's see, umm." Liz waved the two of them off to the side, away from the clerk at the front desk and an older couple who were apparently arguing about where they should go for the evening. "Your mom and Mister Valenti wanted to go off for an evening out, romantic dinner, maybe dancing, the whole nine yards."

"Yeah, not too surprised," Maria replied. "He seemed really determined to meet up with her as soon as the boat ride was finished."

"Yeah... I wasn't there, but as far as I can tell, he was standing there on the quay with flowers," Liz said, and Maria made a bit of a sighing sound. "So, erm, well... Isabel, Tess, and I played hardball when they wanted to get out of chaperoning duty and still get us to promise to behave. I was doing it on principle more than anything else I guess... not really feeling a huge urge to misbehave with Sean yet, but... anyway, you're covered under the agreement too. Umm... did you and Michael have dinner yet?"

Michael looked at her oddly. "Yeah, actually. The bus got in like three quarters of an hour ago, and we were really hungry, so we went to this, um... well, a restaurant in town, anyway. Why do you ask?"

"That was one of the limits on the agreement," Sean said, and Maria jumped. She hadn't seen or heard her annoying older cousin approach. "No fooling around until you eat your dinner."

Maria couldn't help but chuckle at that. "And what else?"

"Don't ask, don't tell," Liz reported. "And do nothing, that could even theoretically in the case of birth control failure, get you pregnant."

Maria blinked. "That's *it*??"

"Pretty much, yeah." Liz laughed. "They must have REALLY wanted some time alone, and Isabel and Tess were in fine form."

"You did good too, honey," Sean assured her.

"Okay, well... thanks," Maria said. "So, how do we work this? Who gets which room??"

"Why don't I come into your room this time, sweetie?" Michael suggested. "Just for the variety." Last time they tried a secretive switch, she had come into the room Michael and Sean shared. "Liz and Sean can hang out in your place, if they like. Sound cool??"

"Yeah, alright," Liz said, grinning and shooting sidelong looks at her troubled-past guy.

"Were you guys just waiting down here for us?" Michael asked suddenly.

"Umm... yeah, kind of," Liz answered. "I'm not sure if we'd have waited all night, but we took our time over dinner, and just finished dessert, umm, maybe 20 minutes ago."

"Cool," Maria said. "Wanna share an elevator up?"

"Alright I guess." They rang the summoning button, and crowded into an elevator car that had been waiting there at the lobby.

"Hmm... I wonder what Kyle and Laurie are up to," Sean wondered aloud as they rode up to the third floor.


TO BE CONTINUED...
Read my other roswell stories!

"A man does not make his destiny: he accepts it or denies it. If the Rowan tree's roots are shallow, it bears no crown." From 'the farthest shore', Ursula LeGuin.

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Chrisken
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Post by Chrisken »

Part Nine

"Have... have you ever been in love, Kyle?"

Kyle looked up with a bit of a start. He was sitting with Laurie out on the hotel beachfront, their butts planted at opposite ends of a big bath towel with fluffy blue ships and green fish printed on it. He tried to look into her face to see what she meant by the question, but the brightest light around, the big stadium lamp on the resort's lawn, was behind her, so that its white brilliance shone reflectively on her golden blonde hair, but left her eyes and other features in shadow. Still... to go by the tone of her voice, she'd probably meant it as a relatively idle question, not a more direct thing about the two of them. "Hmm." Kyle had to think for a long time before he could come up with an answer, and it seemed like Laurie got impatient at the pause... she made a wordless 'well c'mon already' sound deep in her throat, and Kyle tried to reply with a vocalization that implied 'just gimme a minute.'

"I... I don't think so, really," he admitted after a long moment. "I... I've thought I was -- I thought I was in love with Liz, back when we were dating. But... but if there's a textbook example of infatuation, then that's pretty close to what I felt for Liz. I liked the notion of love, the idea of having a pretty girlfriend who'd impress all my teammates. I liked kissing Liz, and that kind of stuff, and I liked hanging out with her and having fun even when we weren't... you know, doing stuff. But -- but if I'd understood her anything like enough to fit with what I think about now as 'being in love', then I would have figured out much earlier that she was falling in love with Max. Maybe... maybe it's better for me that I didn't." He sighed. "And Tess... for a while this spring, especially when we were getting ready to go to prom, I thought I was falling in love with her. It wasn't until Malamud started... well, that's really a long story and I'm not quite sure I want to get into the details and the wherefores. The point is, I could tell that big love was starting to happen between Tess and I, and because that was a bit unexpected, I didn't identify the kind of love right. 'Falling in love' would be a romantic thing, right? But... well, I realized that what I felt for Kyle was more like a brother sister thing." He paused. "I guess you might understand that better than most people, because of what happened with you and Michael. Admittedly, you guys have a genetic basis for calling yourselves family that Tess and I don't. But you still only discovered that you had a sibling long after most people are nearly sick and tired of theirs."

"Yes... I think I do understand a bit about that," Laurie admitted. "It -- it's an unusual sensation, having to reorganize your mental picture of yourself to fit in the notion of an unexpected family member, isn't it?"

"Exactly what I'm talking about," Kyle agreed, smiling broadly and nodding.

"So... are those two it?" Laurie asked. "The only two girls you ever thought you might be in love with just happen to be along for this trip? I mean... well, I've heard that there are a lot of girls back in Roswell that you've dated, or something vaguely like dated."

"And just who did you ask about that?" Kyle asked, surprised and pleased at the thought.

"Umm, well, I asked Michael and Maria about pretty much everyone in... in the gang," she quickly insisted. "Not just you, but Alex and Liz, Max and Isabel and Tess. There were so many questions I asked Maria, I can't remember them all right now. It's not..." She broke off, but Kyle thought the lady had already protested too much. What she had said might be true... but at some point she'd asked someone about him specifically, and not just out of idle curiosity.

"Well, let's see," Kyle said after a few seconds. "Yes, I've been involved with several other girls, and had dates or brief escapades with a bunch of others, but... hmm. Possibly Jenny Callmen, who was the first girl I went steady with freshman year, would fall into about the same sort of category as Liz did... that I thought I was falling in love with her but never got to know her well enough to. Anyone else, know, my heart hasn't been in it even that much." He sighed.

"What about you?" he asked, looking out towards the sea as he spoke the words. "I... I realize that your life hasn't been normal in a bunch of ways... does that mean that you... have you ever had a crush on a guy? Been kissed beneath the stars?"

Laurie laughed. "Yes, I did have a much more ordinary life than you seem to think, up until not that long ago... well, except for the ways that being, erm, coming from a rich eccentric family might make me 'not ordinary'." Kyle laughed too. "I... I probably haven't been in love before, any more than you have, but yes, I've dated." She giggled. "In fact, this is so absolutely cliche that you might not believe a word of it, but I had a madly mutual crush on one of the caddies at the Tucson country club. He was probably someone who I 'thought I was in love with' at the time."

"And... and then, a little bit after my seventeenth birthday, my aunt and uncle began their scheme to get control of my money, and everything went to hell. I..." She took a deep breath, and moved closer to Kyle, trying to look into his face, and he oriented so that he was looking in the direction of the light but not directly at it, so that she could see him clearly. "Still not clear on a lot of the details, but I think that Aunt Meredith started drugging me with something, to make sending me off to the looney bin more believable. Adam - that was the caddy I told you about, he started to get worried about me, because I'd zone out when we were kissing, or even once when I was driving. He must have gotten even more freaked when they stepped up the dosage to keep me inside, but I'm sure he couldn't come to the house to ask about me because nobody knew we were involved." She sighed. "I... I tried to look him up after the whole thing with the granilith queen this spring, but he'd left town and nobody at the club knew where he'd ended up. And... and I don't even really know why I'm telling you all this, Kyle."

"I... I'm glad that you did," he said, starting to turn back around towards the darkness. For a second Laurie frowned in objection, and then the caught the point and turned herself, so that *he* could see HER face clearly now. "Laurie... ever, ever since I met you, that day when Maria told us all about the chance to come here to the Bahamas, I... I can't seem to stop myself from thinking about you. Most of the time I don't even want to try, because I like the way remembering your face makes me feel. I... I know that we haven't known each other long, but... but I'm pretty sure that already I like you as more than just a friend. Have... have you thought about me in anything like the same way?"

She did! Kyle could tell, he had decided, even before Laurie opened her mouth. In the bright artificial light, her facial cues seemed to be abnormally easy to read. "I... I'm not sure if I'd have put it the same way, or if I realized what was going on until just this second," she admitted in a whisper. "But yes... I've been interested in your particularly, in a different way from all of Michael's friends. Something intriguing about your voice, about the kinds of questions you ask me... and probably I was realizing, without knowing why, that you were paying a lot of attention to me too." Laurie moaned slightly and looked down at the fabric of the towel. "But it *is* early, and I don't know how to tell if what we're feeling for each other - how much it means. We're here in a romantic paradise, and the only guy and girl in the entire group that aren't already paired up, including our chaperones. Maybe what I feel is just because I want to catch a bit of that exotic passion for myself."

"I'll... I'll take that chance if you will," Kyle breathed softly. "Not asking for or offering a big commitment here, just -- just want us to have a chance to explore our feelings in a little greater detail, as it were."

Laurie grinned at his reply. "Okay... you've convinced me. Should we... should we kiss or something now? Just kind of to seal the deal??"

"Doesn't sound like the worst idea in the world," Kyle murmured. Laurie nodded slightly, and so he bent forward and slowly brought his lips in to touch hers. Laurie twitched slightly, as if some part of her wanted to jerk away but she wouldn't let that impulse win out. Kyle wasn't sure if he should back off or press on, and so settled mostly for splitting the difference, and continued to kiss her, but as gently and softly as he could. Somehow that seemed to fit the situation.

"Okay... how about we get up now," he asked. "Walk hand in hand down the beach or something sappy like that?"

Laurie broke out laughing at his tone of voice. "I think that'd be lovely."

So they stood up, and Kyle gathered up the towel and put it on a bench where hopefully he'd remember to pick it up when they came back inside. He turned around from the bench and Laurie was holding her hand out for him to take.

----------

"What do you want to do now?" Isabel repeated softly, her hair brushing Alex's naked chest as she leaned over to whisper in his ear.

"Well, umm..." Alex was finding it hard to think at the same time as he looked at Isabel... heck, he didn't even have to look at her! Thinking about her, or just being aware that she was there, so close to him, and completely naked, was driving him crazy. "We... we could keep playing the cards - for consequences, as we agreed in the first place." He wasn't even sure why he was saying that... if his thinking processes were affected this much, then he probably wouldn't stand a chance on the next hand unless Isabel was nearly as strongly affected, and so would lose his shorts. (Maybe that's just what he wanted to happen.) And if neither of them could muster their thoughts too well, there was a pretty good chance that some sort of dispute would arise over proper use of the rules.

"No," Isabel muttered softly, and Alex looked up at her in surprise. "No, Alex, we're done with the Gin Rummy." As if to punctuate her words, the cards suddenly flew, staying together as a deck, up to the little cupboard above Max's bed, and the cupboard door slammed shut on them with finality. "Do... do you want to make another suggestion, or is it up to me?" Her voice was low, whispery and tantalizing, and it made Alex shiver when he really listened to her carefully.

Impulsively, he brought his lips to hers, the sudden motion knocking both of them out of their sitting positions, and as they kissed, he realized that he had ended up nearly lying down, half on his side, half resting against Isabel's firm body, the small towel still partly beneath both of them. Isabel's nakedness felt all kinds of good stuff, pressing against him like this: soft and curvy and lush and ripe and smooth at the same time, just to start off with. Suddenly realizing some of the possibilities of their situation, Alex reached out a hand to touch her skin, running it down her side, across her back, and down to her juicy rear end, which he stroked first gently, then more firmly, and finally he poked her teasingly, right at what seemed like it was the perkiest part of her left cheek. A squeak of surprise escaped her throat at that point, but she didn't move her lips away from his own yet, so her exclamation kind of filtered into his own mouth and bounced around in there for a few seconds. A moment later, and Izzy responded with her own hands, letting one brush through his hair and come to rest gently at a spot that they'd discovered the year before, a tender spot an inch and a half back from the rim of his ear, a kind of pressure point that made an oddly foggy but pleasant sensation run all over his body.

"Suck on my nipples, Alex," Isabel urged him in a naughty whisper, and Alex was certainly glad to oblige her, bringing his mouth to her impressively voluptuous breasts. As he brushed his lips against one of her perky nipples for the first time, both young people let out almost identical groans of lust and anticipation. Alex paid careful attention to the task at hand... or perhaps better to say the task facing him... trying several different things that he had heard about or read in places that his parent's didn't know about. He watched what happened when he sucked softly on Isabel's luscious flesh HERE, or licked more energetically on her soft and sensitive skin THERE, compared and memorized everything.

Eventually, though, Isabel moved back slightly, not drawing away enough to signal an end to the encounter, but just taking stock, a more determined and agressive look in her eye. "The... the game of Strip Gin is well over now, right?" she confirmed. "No need to stick to those rules??"

"Well, umm... yeah, of course," he said. "You seemed to be pretty clear about that when you... when you shut the cards away."

"Just checking," she replied teasingly. "Then, I assume that I can just ASK you if you want to take your boxer shorts, instead of winning a game to demand it. Right??"

Alex grinned. "Yes, I think that you can." There was a quiet moment after that.

"Okay, okay," Isabel sighed. "Alex, will you take your undershorts off for me?"

"I'd be quite pleased to," he replied, pondering how best to accomplish that, and then getting up to a full standing position for just long enough to slip them off, sitting down again a moment later, just as bare as Isabel herself was. Isabel leaned close, examining his stiff dick, a little nervous in the situation but not asking for permission -- whether she was certain that he welcomed her attention, or just assumed that he'd speak up if there was anything about the scenario he was uncomfortable with, he wasn't quite sure about.

"Ummm..." Isabel licked her lips, staring him up and down, seemed to debate whether to form actual words or not, and reached out towards his cock with her right hand. He didn't say anything or pull away, and she wrapped her soft fingers and her palm around him, just holding it for a second, and Alex let out an enthusiastic, encouraging moan at that point. Chuckling softly, she started to rub the erection, moving her whole hand up and down.

"Is... is this a hand job? I'm not sure if I'm doing it right," she admitted.

"Well, I wouldn't know, I've never gotten one before," Alex pointed out, something halfway between a laugh and a gasp underneath his words. "Well, I mean, I beat off myself, obviously, but that's a bit different and I'm not going to tell you to do the same thing. It... it would seem less special, less exciting, in a way. Does that make any sense??"

"Surprisingly, quite a lot. But this is good?"

"Umm... so far I'd have to say that it's amazing." Isabel chuckled with pleasure and began to speed up her stroking.

"Are... are you getting close?" she asked him about a minute later.

"Err... kinduv, yeah," Alex admited.

"So..." and she slowed the pace of her rubbing a bit again. "If I finish the job, if I keep jerking you off until your nice big cock with sticky white cum under my soft fingers..." Alex groaned as she laid on the sweet, nasty nothings with a large spoon, "what happens afterward? Is there... is there anything that you can think of to do to return the favor?"

Alex laughed deep in his chest. "You vixen. Isabel Evans, you are a sexy, adorable... merciless tease, do you know that?"

"Umm... yeah, actually. So how about it?"

"Well, I'd certainly be more than willing to try," Alex admitted. "Do you have any requests? From what I saw when you took your panties off, your pussy is very enticing and pretty, and I'd certainly like to get more familiar with it, make you feel good any way you want." Isabel just smiled enigmatically, and Alex realized that she wanted him to take the lead. "Do you want me to try using my tongue? To kiss and lick your clitty, to bathe your slit in my spit?"

"That... yeah, that'll do nicely," Isabel agreed. And she started to pump him as vigorously as she could, sending him rapidly towards the brink.

"Oh, sweet lordly jillipping... UNNNGH!!" With that cry, Alex's legs and feet spasmed once, and then most of them twitched again, and his rod quivered before sending out a spray of white spunk in several similar directions... some of his jizz clung to Isabel's fingers, or landed in the lock of long blonde hair that had been falling down next to her face. At least one blob seemed to arc high in the air before coming down on the carpet, and a little bit landed on Alex himself. "Ohhhh..." the sound Alex made at this point was a sigh of deep physical contentment. "Okay, erm... your turn, right??"

"Yeah, just give me a minute." A little self-consciously, Isabel started to clean up the traces of spunk... and shuddered after automatically making the sticky stuff that had clung to her fingers puff into vapor. This stuff wasn't just any messy goop, it was, in a weird way, Alex's deepest essence - living cells within it, from the most private parts of him. On the other hand... she didn't want to keep them around (and had agreed not to let them fufill their mindless purpose,) and cleaning his 'boys' up the more traditional way, dumping them down a toilet didn't seem to be any more dignified. So she vaporized the rest of his cum too.

Alex stood up once she was done with him, ducking quickly into the bathroom and coming up with one of the big beach towels. Isabel shuffled back to the edge of the open space in the middle of the room and let him spread the towel out. "Okay, lie down there. If you don't mind, I'm going to get started elsewhere, but don't worry... your pussy will get its share of attention."

Isabel giggled and got into her position. She'd never really thought of... of her private parts as 'her pussy' before, but somehow she really liked how it sounded when Alex said it. He leaned down over her, sucking on her cleavage and her nipples a little bit more, then moved on to lick every little bit of her belly, and then her thighs. Isabel was moaning, hardly able to bear the anticipation but not crying out or begging him to move on... Alex would get to the main event when he was good and ready, not a minute before... and she suspected that she'd enjoy the culmination the more for him taking his time with foreplay.

When he first started to suck gently on her rosebud, Isabel wondered if she'd pass out from just that sensation alone. She didn't, though. It took Alex about five minutes of careful effort to get her that far.

----------

For several minutes after Michael led Maria into his room, neither of them said anything... well, anything that was actually words in English or any other established language, at least. There was the kiss hello, and some glad-that-you're-here stroking, and a considerable batch of further body language -- as in 'body-on-body' language. When speech out loud finally entered the picture, Maria was lying down on Michael's bed, and he was sitting on the edge of it, his hips quite close to hers, though in different orientations.

"So, umm... any idea what kind of mischief you'd like to, umm... to get up to tonight?" Maria teased. "Keeping Liz and Isabel's promise in mind, of course."

"Well... there are a few things short of doing the interspecies mating ritual that we've both enjoyed in the past," Michael whispered with a smile.

"Oh... *right*." She laughed at the thought. "So, what -- you'd like me to do what I did as a special surprise for your birthday, maybe?? Hm?"

"Well... obviously I'd appreciate that, yeah," Michael agreed. "On the other hand... I've done the same sort of thing for you too, right? It hasn't all been one-sided."

"That... that's true." Maria reached up slightly to tenderly hold his upper arm with one hand. "You've been quite a giver, in the bedroom, and I don't give you nearly enough credit for that I suppose."

"So... we can mess around with old favorites like that," Michael continued, smiling, "and maybe after each of us have gotten our rocks off once that way... there's something new that I'd like to try."

"Alright," Maria said. "My turn first." There was a bit of unspoken confusion, in that Michael assumed she meant her turn on the receiving end, not as the active participant... but that wasn't nearly what Maria had in mind. "Come... come on." She sat up, half squirmed away from her position on the bed, and immediately went to unzip Michael's fly, then encouraging him to shed his pants entirely. Soon he was the one lying flat on his back, wearing nothing except a tank top undershirt... and with his pole already at half mast and rising fast. Maria started by stroking and nuzzling his legs and his arms -- a tease job that brought Michael to the end of his patience quite quickly, but he'd learned now to avoid blowing his stack when Maria pulled this kind of trick. She always made it worth his while in the end.

She teased his nipples softly through the undershirt, and then got to what he thought of as the main order of business... licking his dick and taking the cockhead into her mouth, sucking hard. She blew him off for a minute, or maybe two, like that, using her fingers elsewhere on his body to keep him completely keyed up... and then backed away, smiling mysteriously at the groan of disappointment that her partner couldn't entirely keep supressed. From somewhere... Michael couldn't quite tell where, she produced a nearly cubical plastic canister with the hotel name printed on it... one of the ones that had been provided with each room. Michael guessed what was coming... sure enough, she produced a small disc of machine-generated ice... (from the way she hefted the canister it had to be nearly full of ice,) and ran the chill pill over her lips sensously before slipping it into her mouth and moving it from cheek to cheek. At the same time, she let her hands run over Michael's still-straining organ, keeping his excitement from flagging, and soon, when she gobbled him into her mouth again, the touch of her tongue, lips, and all of the inside of her mouth was just slightly chill, which made the sensation of her flesh sliding against his hot, engorged meat somehow even more dizzyingly sweet. Once that first dose of cool started to wear off, she slipped another round piece of ice into her mouth, and this time started to suck on him and it at the same time, which was impossibly more intense. Michael tried to delay his peak as long as possible, but Maria was an irresistible sexual force: soon his DNA sample was shooting to the back of her throat, where Maria gulped it down as suavely as she could manage.

"Okay, umm... that was amazing," he admitted. Maria had pulled the ice cube trick once before, but this time had been even better... it looked like she was thinking of making it her signature move, and Michael didn't object to that a bit... as long as he was the only guy she ever did her signature move with... EVER. "Let's see, umm... I'm gonna need a bit more room to go to town on you."

Maria smiled that gorgeous pixie-ish smile of hers that made Michael melt inside... or at least a small bit of him that he didn't ususally show around anyone else. "Out on the carpet, with bath towels to lie on??"

"As you wish, my lady." Michael fetched the towels, and Maria had stripped down to her alluring birthday suit by the time he got back with them. Michael couldn't resist the urge to embrace her and let his hands wander up and down her lush body before getting down to the real business... squeezing gently on breast and butt-cheek, stroking the sleek muscles of her back and the delicately soft skin of her inner thighs. Eventually, though, Maria lay down, legs spread, her back and rear end cushioned by the bath towels, and Michael sarted to lick at her pussy lips and her clit. He had only done this once before, about a week before prom, (and used his fingers a few times, which Maria also seemed to like a lot,) but felt he was a pretty quick study when it came to this sort of thing.

Something happened slightly differently this time... as Michael licked and carefully stroked, he started to get a series of very specific flashes from Maria... not conscious thoughts, (probably not,) but very specific daydreams of things she'd fantasized about in a similar situation to this. Not all of them worked especially well, (since Maria was a little inexperienced with the wanton acts of carnality, just as Michael was himself, when it came right down to it,) but enough of them were winners that Michael was able to push Maria fairly quickly and competently up to the squirming edge of a huge orgasm, and then right on into the midst of it.

A few minutes later, the two of them were cuddling tight in the middle of the floor. "So... you had something else that you said you wanted to try, once we'd been through the usual stuff?" Maria asked.

"Umm... yeah... do we have to jump right into it?" Michael asked. Maria shifted enough that she could look into his face, and gave him a somewhat incredulous, are-you-for-real look. "Okay, okay... actually, this'll work pretty well," he continued after a moment's thought. "Just... just stay quiet and let me concentrate a moment."

Maria relaxed a bit, and Michael couldn't bring himself to concentrate for at least thirty seconds... just immersing himself in that perfect little moment, lying together with their arms around each other. And then, he drew on his powers to try to exxagerate their closeness. It was a kind of conection technique, like Max used to heal people, but Michael tried to screen the body resonance out of this particular connection, so that he wasn't aware of Maria's hands, or feet, or her boobs for that matter, or even her literal heart.

It was her metaphorical heart that Michael was trying to reach, the center of her emotions, even if that wasn't a specific place inside Maria. To contact it with his own. That worked. Their hearts drew closer together...

And Maria's heart jumped at his... trying to surround it, penetrate him, mix with him, all at once. Michael's spirit started in surprise, unable to even vocalize as the surge of intimacy and passion overwhelmed his heart.

The next thing he knew, they were still lying on the floor, but the LED display of the clock on Sean's nightstand read 1:16 am - more than two hours since he'd eaten Maria out. Michael wondered if Mister Valenti and Ms DeLuca would conduct room checks once they got back... but if it was important for them to all get back into their right rooms by now, Sean or Liz would have woken them up. Maria was still asleep, or passed out or whatever the right term was... she was breathing regularly, not snoring... (which she did occasionally but not often, as far as Michael knew,) and had a huge, contented smile on her face. Michael suddenly realized that he was probably grinning another grin just like that himself.

Without waking Maria, he managed to get up and gather her in his arms, so that they could sleep side by side on the bed instead of the floor.

----------

"Hey," Liz said as she walked out of the changing room and waved hi to Sean. "This was really a great idea."

Sean, who was already in the hot tub, took a moment to let his eyes sweep up and down Liz's figure again. "I... I couldn't agree more," he stammered, and Liz laughed good-naturedly as she got into the jacuzzi along the other side. "You-- you know, as a getting to know each other thing, not to mention, umm, just plain fun..."

"Yeah, yeah," Liz said, letting her body sink under the hot bubbling water up all the way to her neck. Most of the reason, probably, that she had been so long getting ready that Sean had got into the water first, had been wondering what to do about her hair. She hadn't really wanted to worry about getting it wet, so she'd ended up pinning it behind her head in a quick bun. Maybe she should get her hair cut, like Maria had... no, no, she didn't think she'd be able to bring herself to do that... she had too much fun with longer hair - when it wasn't getting in her way - to chop much off. "Umm... yeah, I know that, well, some of the others are probably gettin' bizzay with each other, but... but I'm really not ready for that yet." A dark thought flashed through her head, wondering if Max and Tess were naked in front of each other, if his lips were on her skin... and she forced the whole idea out of the surface of her mind as hard as she could. "Not to say that I have a problem with messing around a little, but... no pressure. That okay?"

"Hey... i's cool," Sean drawled, and Liz had to laugh again. "So, umm... do you want to talk about stuff and junk?"

"I dunno... it's not really a very good time to junk," Liz quipped, "since there isn't a trash bin around, never mind anything within reach to put in it." Sean rolled his eyes at her and shook his head slightly, and out of the blue Liz's own breath caught. Sean was apparently sitting on some kind of ledge not very far down into the water, because his bare chest was almost entirely out of the water... and somehow the pose made him look perfectly cool, composed, and mysteriously handsome. A part of Liz still wasn't sure how deeply she wanted to get involved with this young man... and then, a different little voice inside her head sing-songed that she had already come too far to back out, or to try and set conditions on how this affair would end up. "Talking about stuff could work, probably not anything too heavy." She tried to cast her mind back to find something relatively neutral. "What... what was high school like for you? Were - were you getting into trouble all through it, or..." She found herself uncertain about how to end that last question.

"Or did the transition to juvenile delinquent come upon me suddenly?" Sean laughed. Liz was motionless for a second, and then shrodded - a gesture of her own which was half a shrug and half a nod. (Quite a useful trick in unexpected situations.) "I... for the first two and a half years, I'd say that I was... well, somewhere between a good guy and a bad boy, just mixed up enough to be interesting." Liz chuckled nervously. "Bit of a jock... mostly in lighter sports like basketball and track... I was on the Roswell High lacrosse team when we made it to the county chamipionships."

Liz smiled. "Yeah, I forgot that you went to the OTHER school." West Roswell and Roswell high had a bit of a rivalry going, and she had never actually met anyone who'd gone to Roswell high before. Of course... Max and Isabel *shouldn't* have been going to West Roswell, considering that they lived on the eastern edge of town, but... well, it was a long story, and the basics of Liz's understanding was that Mister Evans had heard good things about WRH's academic record and pulled some strings to get them admitted on a slightly dodgy loophole basis. "What... this might honestly..." Liz shook her head back and forth, trying to remember something. "I... I know that you're Maria's cousin, obviously, that her Mom is your aunt... and that's on your father's side, right?? He was Maria's mom's brother?"

"You got it," Sean replied. "Emil DeLuca. Married Jennifer Munro, errr, september of nineteen-seventy six. Left Roswell in the Spring of ninety-nine, currently living in Delaware and wanting nothing in particular to do with me."

"Ohh..." The exclamation just kind of burst out of Liz's lungs. "I... I'm sorry to hear that. I'd -- well, I'd hate to think that my parents would ever, *could* ever turn their back on me like that, no matter what I might do." She sighed.

"Well... frankly, I'm not sure that anyone in my family is as good people as yours," Sean said with a smile. "Just my nuclear family, I'd like to add... I'm not meaning to include Aunt Em or Maria in that." He sighed. "And... and maybe I'm being a little unfair to my mom... she's a good lady, but... I think my parents were never as functional as all get-out when I was growing up. I hope that they're doing okay with the change of scenery, and without me in the picture... really I do. I'd love to see them sometime, but... but not really holding out hope for anything but a fairly brief reunion."

"Well, um, okay," Liz said, feeling more than a little lost in terms of what to say next. "I... I really didn't want to get you talking about THIS kind of stuff, though if it's something you wanna, um, get off your chest or anything, I don't mind."

"Ehh... it hasn't sucked telling you, but yeah, I'm good with ending the share session now," Sean quipped. "Any ideas for what you want to do tomorrow?? Quick, don't think about it, just blurt out the first thing that came to your mind."

"Sailing," Liz said, and blinked a bit in surprise. "Okay, I definitely wouldn't a-said that if I'd let myself think about it."

"Oh, why not??" Sean asked. "Is sailing something that... that you think wouldn't be practical, or are you actually not sure if you'd like it?"

"Umm... well, I know that it's something that takes some practice and experience, none of which I have."

"Hmm... true up to a point," Sean admitted. "We probably shouldn't be going off sailing far and wide, exploring Cannonball island and what have you." Several of the group who had been on the motorboat tour had told them about the strange, small island with a reputation for having been a pirate hideout. "But you need to get practie and experience somewhere, and a resort like this seems like a good place to start. I've been interested in sailing for a while myself, though I haven't really had a chance to do more than trying to keep a windsurfer from grounding on a fairly narrow river." Liz smiled at the thought. "You don't get much more water than rivers around New Mexico, obviously.

"True up to a point," Liz allowed. "Well, I'm interested in trying it out if you're up for the deal. Sounds like fun."

"Great." And suddenly Sean was moving, across the jacuzzi to sit next to her in the hot water, and his lips met hers in a kiss that was even hotter. "Umm... I, uh, I hope you don't mind," he said, suddenly looking embarassed. "Thought that we had a moment there."

"We... we did," Liz agreed. "Sean, you... you don't need to be quite so tentative and apologetic about making the first move with me. It... well, it kinda clashes with your rough older-guy appeal."

Sean's eyebrows shot up. "Umm... okay. I -- " He made a bit of a twisty, odd face with his lips curling up in an asymmetric way. "I guess I just keep remembering the expression you gave me the first time I took the initiative to kiss you... in my car outside the Crashdown, ehh, not quite a week before the prom."

"Umm... well, yeah," Liz admitted. "I, uh... well, that was kind of different. For the record, the kiss itself was pretty good... and it would probably have been better than 'pretty good' if I'd been pulling my share."

"Well, you weren't exactly just sitting there passively," Sean pointed out with a twinkle in his eye.

"No, I wasn't," she admitted, and for a second heard Maria's voice from the bathroom the next day. 'It's not like you would kiss him back, right?' "But... but what I did, I didn't do whole-heartedly, and..." She sighed. "I guess it all comes back to Max. I was still really wrapped up in the whole thing with Max at the time, and so I guess I felt... embarassed and guilty and uncertain all at the same time. Because I liked getting kissed by you, and there was a big part of me that didn't like that I liked it."

"Ahh," Sean nodded. "Because you felt like you were stepping out on him?"

"Yeah," Liz insisted. "Which is crazy, because we weren't... weren't anything, at the time... but a heart has its own way of looking at these things, and it doesn't always make that much sense... or else it would be a head instead of a heart, or something." Liz considered that statement, then decided to pass it by and press on. "The bottom line is this - I may not be completely over Max Evans, even now, but I'm trying to move on and not letting him interfere with whatever is going on between you and me. And, for the record... while we're here in paradise, I want you to kiss me anytime it seems to you like a good idea - and if I change my mind about that blanket statement, you will definitely hear about it."

Sean smiled. "Cool." He rather obviously thought kissing her right then would be a good idea... but somewhat to his surprise, Liz had already started her approach, and kissed HIM. It turned into a french makeout session that lasted for several long minutes, with hands wandering over each other's wet skin and stroking over bathing suits, (though not going underneath them, at this point.)

"Liz, Liz..." Sean groaned, as she sucked determinedly on a particular pulse point of his neck that she'd just discovered, and that seemed to be especially sensitive. Just the feel of her soft, supple lips against his skin was pushing his libido up to an unbelievable level. "You're... you're driving me so crazy, making me so hot. I... I want to do things to you that I know that I can't... things that would go against the deal you brokered with Aunt Amy and Mister V... not to mention a bunchuv other reasons that we shouldn't..."

Liz backed away from Sean a little, but her eyes were still hungry and interested, if a little conflicted. "T-tell me," she managed to stutter out, and Sean gave her a confused, doubtful look. "I... seriously, if you possibly can. I want - I *need* to hear what you want to do together. Could you do that for me?"

Sean shrugged, slightly. "Well, um, first I'd probably just rip off that teasing little swim outfit that you're wearing... kiss you again, and give you a taste of what it's like having *your* neck sucked on like that." Liz drew in a breath in a soft moan. "Then, um, then I'd probably move on to those sweet, bouncing and perky breasts you've got... tweak your nipples and lick them, get you charged up as much as I can while stripping my own suit off... and I don't know how long I could resist thrusting my cock into your cunny, pouding you as fast and as hard as either of us could take." He took a deep breath. "Oh, it'd be so hot, Liz... I've always wanted to have sex in a hot tub..." He broke off, his eyes one again showing that look that told Liz he was afraid that he'd gone too far... that he'd shocked her or unwittingly set off some internal defense.

But Liz... well, though her head was swimming like a naked girl in shark-infested waters, her heart was beating at the memory of Sean's straightforward sex-talk, and the imagery was powerful enough to partially wake some deep lumbering passion that lived down at the core of her sexuality. But... but tonight was definitely not the night. "Th-thanks," she managed to say. "That, that was great... and yeah, I'd love to do that too." The statement was probably around thirty percent a lie, but she couldn't think clearly enough to come up with something that she could tactfully tell Sean and that was any closer to the literal truth... she'd used up her quota of 'there's a part of me' metaphors for the night. "But... but tonight is not the right time." She sighed. "Maybe we'd better dry up... seperately, and head upstairs?"

Sean looked at her, shaking his head slightly. "One more for the road?" And without waiting for an answer, he kissed her again, a sweet and tender kiss, uncomplicated by the thick sexual tension still hanging between them. Liz smiled and got back out... noticing that even during all of their making out, she'd managed to completely avoid getting her hair even damp.

There were other parts of her body, though, that were wet in ways that didn't owe directly to the hot tub.

----------

"Okay, now, the gig is up." I started slightly at the loud voice resonating from out in the hallway. "Per our agreement there will be no disciplinary action... but everybody is to get up and go back to their own rooms. NOW." I was feeling a little too fuzzy to recognize voices, but somehow the pattern of speech could only be Mrs DeLuca.

Tess and I were still mostly naked and all cuddled together... I put my t-shirt back on at some point, and we both had underpants on, and had fallen asleep together on Isabel's bed. (Sheesh, if everybody would be switching in the next few minutes, would she notice that the sheets were warm and mussed and get upset with us about it? And how would I feel if I knew that Alex and Izzzie had been in my bed?) Tess turned on a single light with a wave of her hand, smiled cutely at me, and went off to find some kind of clothes or pajamas to get dressed in. I slipped my jeans back on, and then tried to use my powers on Isabel's bedding... first blowing lots of air against it to cool the material down, then making it again about as tidily as it had been before. It was about a minute before I opened the door and stepped out into the hall. Tess leaned on the doorframe from inside, ready to wave or call out if she needed to to reassure Amy that she was here... though I don't suppose anyone would doubt that she was here when they saw me coming out of the girls' room.

There was something of a gathering out in the hall by this point... Amy DeLuca and Mister Valenti of course, looking more than a little, erm... relaxed and disheveled themselves, in my personal opinion. Kyle and Laurie... not exactly either of those things, but noticeably... friendly, that was a good word for it... standing together in the corridor that led back towards the elevators and whispering together. Had Kyle made a move tonight? If he had, it seemed to have gone pretty well. I realized that I was much happier with the notion of Kyle spending time with Laurie than trying to be a third wheel with Tess and I... not that he'd been doing that so far, I had to admit.

Alex and Isabel were together near the door to the Alex/me room, Alex leaning against the wall next to the door, Isabel a little closer to her room and trying very deliberately to look anywhere but at me or Tess. Hmm. And Michael and Maria, further down the hall... actually, Michael was just coming out of one of the rooms down there.

"No, neither of them are anywhere... erm, actually, did anybody check the Valenti room?"

"Uh, not yet," Mister Valenti said. Check their room for what... or for whom? Jim turned towards the door, but Kyle was closer, and he keycarded it open in about a second, turned the lights on and went 'hello, helloo?' in there for maybe fifteen seconds before coming back.

"Nope, nobody in there."

"There's nobody missing but..." I muttered, and then couldn't finish the sentence. Liz... and Sean. Where were they? What was going on? If they'd wanted to... well, to do stuff, couldn't they have done it here in the hotel rooms like the rest of us? (Or at least some of the rest of us... I wasn't sure who besides me, Tess, Isabel, and Alex had had any action in the rooms. Somehow I suspected that Michael and Maria had too.)

"What... what if something's wrong?" Maria asked, a nervous trace in her voice. "I mean, that may sound silly, but you... you never know. When do we decide to form a search party?"

I was trying to think of a good answer, and also wondering if I should jump to answer in front of Maria's mom... (who didn't understand the uncertain leadership role I had over the rest of the group -- even as much as I understood it myself, and might think it was weird for me to be jumping in in front of Mister Valenti.) However, in the middle of that eerie silence came a very clear and recognizable sound.

The ding of an elevator car arriving at our floor.

Everybody who didn't have a good look down the hall immediately hurried over to have a peek around the corner. Sure enough, the familiar forms of a small girl with a pinned-up mass of dark hair wearing a little red bikini, and a taller guy, with short, light brown hair and swimming shorts, stepped out. Liz seemed to stagger a little at the welcoming committee... which I guess I don't really blame her.

"What... where were you two?" Maria blurted out, and thus saved me from the effort of refusing to ask the question myself.

"We, um, we went for a swim together in the hot tubs," Sean mumbled in his characteristically laid-back voice.

"Yeah," Liz agreed, recovering some of her composure. And then... well, we weren't sure who was where, and didn't want to sit up in a room waiting for you guys to finish whatever you were doing, so we went out for another walk through the gardens and sat on a bench in town for about half an hour, talking," Liz replied. "Why, what's... well, hi Amy... Mister Valenti."

"Alright," Jim sighed. "Everybody's accounted for, everybody's none the worse... and it's pretty damn late. To your assigned rooms. NOW."

We went, without delay. My bed seemed to be quite authentically undisturbed, although I stepped into a damp spot on the carpet that I do NOT wanna think about. (Come to think of it, did Tess and I check the carpet? Sheesh, this room switching thing is more psychologically explosive than I ever expected it would be.)

"Hey, Max, are you asleep?" Alex asked me.

"Umm, no, not yet. What's up?" Please don't share anything about you and my sister, I prayed silently.

"Oh, nothing much." Alex yawned. "Got anything planned for tomorrow?"

"Eh, not really. Might try grabbing one-a those tour buses. What about you?"

"Izzie said she wanted to catch some rays out on the beach... I'll probably join her."

Thought about that for a second. "Alright, good enough."

I had a few weird dreams that night. Something about being with an away team from the next-generation Enterprise, and an old-fashioned Czech factory labor strike. Not quite sure of any more details than that. Oh, and then there was the dream where Liz and Tess started wrestling over me, and both of them ended up falling in a pool... but I don't suppose it's quite as mysterious where that sort of dream might have come from.

----------

"Okay, so what now?" Liz asked Sean the next morning. They'd had breakfast in the hotel dining room, somewhat late, and the beauty of the Bahamas late morning was filling Liz with a certain kind of restless, balked energy.

"Ehh... I dunno, I'm not really up for much, babe." Sean stretched and kind of sighed. "It was a late night last night, in case you hadn't noticed."

"Yeah, but we slept in!" Liz insisted. Sean shot her a look. "Okay, okay, maybe I'm just young enough not to feel the hit right away."

"Yeah, I'm sure that's it," Sean agreed, chuckling. "How about hanging around in the pool for a bit?"

"Sounds great to me," Liz agreed. The two of them went back up to their room to change, and then mixed with a few other swimmers. After maybe ten minutes they had staked out a bit of the shallow end to frolic in by themselves.

"So... what do you think your summer will be like, once we get back to Ol' New Mexico?" Sean asked her with a grin.

"Hmm... not sure I guess - I haven't given it that much thought," Liz admitted. "Probably working a lot in the cafe, saving up for college and that kind of stuff. Spending as much time as I can with my friends... especially Alex and Maria." Sean made a kind of an 'ahhh' noise. "Aaand what's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, I couldn't help noticing a name that you definitely left off that list," Sean pointed out. "Evans... Max."

"Yeah, I guess I did," Liz admitted. "I dunno... I *do* still want to be his friend, but it's going to take some time before it's a terribly comfortable friendship... before I can be around him and Tess when they're together, without feeling a bit of a pang." She sighed. "Maybe he feels the same about you and me - I'm not sure."

"I'm sure," Sean said, and Liz blinked slightly. "I could see it in his eyes when we stepped out of the elevator last night."

"Hmmm." Liz mulled that over.

"And... well, not to nudge too much, but is there anyone else you're hoping to spend a bunch of time with this summer?" Sean grinned a wide and slightly manic grin. Liz dissolved into giggles.

"Yes, you too, you goober. I mean, haven't I made it clear how I feel about you by now, and that it isn't some holiday romance?"

"Umm... I think you can always tell me again," Sean breathed softly. "I mean... I can listen to what you say, but it's hard to believe that I'm not just hearing what I want to hear."

"Okay. I... I'm falling in love with you, Sean." Liz reached up on her tiptoes against the pool floor to kiss him on the lips. "And I want to see how much farther I can fall if I don't catch myself too soon."

"Cool. I -- I think I love you already," Sean said in a whisper. "I... I've never really been in love before, so I'm not completely certain of how the routine goes, but..."

"Don't... don't worry about that," Liz replied. "I think I can show you some of the way."

All of a sudden, Maria hurried into the pool area, wearing a summery skirt that went just past knee-length, a dark purple halter top, and a bright flower tucked between her hair and her ear. "Liz! Come quick - it's important!!"

"What the heck?" Almost as if her body was going on auto-pilot, Liz groaned and half pulled herself, half rolled out of the pool. "What... what's the big?"

Sean was getting out as well. Oh, great move, Maria... assuming that this is alien business, didn't you just have to tell your cousin that this was an emergency? "Do... do you remember the first time that Michael used his - his special abilities in front of you?" Maria asked.

Liz was feeling more than a little trapped, between Maria's question, and Sean's approach. Desperate, she played the only card she could think of. "Sean, give us a minute alone, kay? I think it's girl stuff." Sean didn't look pleased, but he allowed Liz to hurry Maria back off into a corridor that led to the stairwell and the front desk.

"Why... why is this important, Maria?" Liz asked. Maria didn't reply, and the expression on her face was starting to freak Liz out. "Okay, okay. Umm... I guess that would be after he told me that he had taken my diary, a year ago last fall. He locked and unlocked the Crashdown front door just by waving his hand in front of it... to make the point about how easily he'd been able to break into my bedroom."

Maria smiled and cocked her head slightly. "How much do you know about Isabel's alien background??"

Liz was getting more and more suspicious about this. "She... she was supposed to be the princess back on Antar, right? The old king's oldest daughter... well, okay, that wasn't really her, but Isabel was born using the princess' DNA, along with human genes, and princess Vilandra's 'essence', whatever that means. Maria..."

"What is the rule of thumb or principle of strategy that Max would most often use if presented with an unexpected danger or challenge?"

Keep your head down! The answer rang in Liz's head, but she managed to keep from blurting it out. The entire situation sounded way too wrong. "Maria, this is crazy. You tell me what's going on before I answer another stupid ques..."

As quick as a snake striking, Maria's hand was wrapped around Liz's upper arm in a firm, commanding grip. "You will reply!"

"Sean!!" Liz called out, hoping that he was close enough to hear her... and that he could help. Maria's eyes narrowed furiously, and the grip started to get tighter, and Liz felt her eyes starting to water with the pain. She couldn't see anything clearly.

Maria's voice, distorted into something that Liz hated, rang in her ears. "Is there a technique or pattern of concentration that can be used to penetrate or detect Tess Harding's mindwarps??"

"Yes there is," Liz blurted out, through a mixture of pain and a spiteful desire to feed false information to whoever had sent Maria on this mission. "Just recite a doctor seuss poem in the back of your mind and bite your bottom lip..."

Actually, Liz might not have finished saying the word 'lip.' She was never really sure afterwards. There was a flurry of baffling motion, an awkward crash, and when she next opened her eyes, things were painfully clear. Sean was lying crumpled on the bottom few stairs that led up towards the second floor, and Liz only had a second to stare at him before Maria was insistently dragging her away. Liz screamed, no longer caring who heard her or what came of it.

"Liz!!" Someone had just burst in from the front desk door, and he pointed at Maria. A wave of invisible force knocked her back, breaking her grip on Liz... and the new person gasped in shock and a little bit of horror. He rushed over to all of them. "Liz, are you okay? Sean?? I... what the heck is going on?"

It was Michael. Michael stared at disbelief at Maria lying on the floor near Liz's feet... and Liz stared in even greater shock back the way Michael had come - because Maria was there too, identically dressed, completely speechless. Liz tracked her gaze back to the Maria who had attacked her, and skittered back when that girl moved her head, revealing messy tears in the skin of her cheek, where it had struck hard concrete flooring. But the giant scratches weren't bleeding red... or bleeding at all. There was a little clear liquid leaking from underneath perhaps, and behind the ripped skin Liz could catch a faint glimpse of geometrical patterns in shades of gray, and faint spark of light!

Too suddenly for Michael or Liz to react, the fake Maria leapt back to her feet and ran out the emergency exit. Michael went over to Sean to examine him.

"We... we need to find some way to catch Max's bus. Sean's not doing good."

Real-Maria groaned. "Oh, sheesh, how do I have a duplicate now? Do you think she's a skin, or a hybrid clone or something."

Liz looked from Michael to Maria. "You didn't... no, I guess you wouldn't have seen, from where you were standing." She gulped. "Maria, after Michael attacked her - 'she' looked like an android!"


TO BE CONTINUED...
Read my other roswell stories!

"A man does not make his destiny: he accepts it or denies it. If the Rowan tree's roots are shallow, it bears no crown." From 'the farthest shore', Ursula LeGuin.

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Chrisken
Obsessed Roswellian
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Post by Chrisken »

Part Ten

"Thanks, Mister V," Michael said as Jim Valenti walked out of the car rental place, holding up a sparse keyring so that it could be seen. As Valenti came close, Michael made a grab for the car key, but Valenti was slightly too quick to allow that.

"My name's on the rental agreement, so I'll drive," he informed Michael curtly. "At least, as long as that's practical. Oh, Sean, you're awake... how are you doing?"

Sean's reply was none too coherent and seemed to actually make reference to seeing some kind of little winged creatures circling around his head. Maria frowned. "Are we sure that we shouldn't be taking him to the hospital here in town?"

Valenti sighed. "They'd ask a lot of questions that we can't or don't want to answer. No, I think Michael's plan of getting him to Max as quickly as possible is the only way." He considered. "But I'm not sure that all of us should be going. The others need to be warned about this robot Maria..."

"Android Maria," Liz corrected softly.

"Whatever - this impostor running around. Alex and Isabel should be pretty easy to find on the beach, and then Isabel can protect everybody and go looking for Laurie... and Kyle." The look on his face was haunted, and Michael realized that he must be very worried about his son. "For a few reasons, I think it might be best if you warn them, Maria."

For a second, she seemed about to object, and then things started to add up. Until the automotive search party found Max and Tess, Michael was their only alien defender - he had to go, just in case there was some kind of trouble on the road. And asking Liz to leave Sean behind would be horribly unfair. Maria was worried about her cousin too, but probably not quite so much. "Alright." She took a deep breath.

"I'll go with you as far as the hotel grounds," Michael suggested. That seemed to minimize the chances that she would run into her deadly double while unprotected.

"We can drop her off on our way," Valenti pointed out, indicating the spacious sedan than he had rented out. Michael nodded an agreement, and the five of them crowded in, Liz helping and guiding a still-very-groggy Sean.

----------

"Wait a second," Alex objected, an oddly out of place smile on his face. "How do we know that YOU'RE not the android Maria? If she knows some of our secrets..."

"Yeah, but I doubt whoever programmed her researched the very embarassing secrets that I'm going to repeat in front of Isabel if you don't drop it right now," Maria growled, her patience completely exhausted by the strangeness of this day so far.

"Okay, I give, I give," Alex admitted. "No self-respecting robot could be so cruel."

"I dunno, maybe we should call her bluff," Isabel pointed out. "Making threats is cheap - backing them up..." She broke up as a very unrobotic expression took over all of Maria's face. "Okay, okay, I believe you." Isabel stood up on the beach sand, happened to spot a nineteen-something frat boy paying close attention to her bikini-clad body, and bared her teeth. "Hey, buddy, private conversation goin' on here. Find some other girl to leer at!!" Surprised and a little abashed, the boy started paying very intense interest to the small print on his bottle of sunscreen. Quickly the three Roswell kids packed up Alex and Isabel's things and started to make their way back up the beach.

Quietly, Maria started to tell the others what she'd picked up about A-Maria's attempts to pump Liz for information about the aliens, and how Sean had been hurt. Because of all the noise about the beach, she had to repeat herself a lot, and was quickly using 'Amarie' as a code name for her doppleganger.

"What... what about your mom, Maria?" Isabel asked in a low voice.

"Mister V said that she's lying down in her room. Hopefully... there's no reason that Amarie should look for her - because she doesn't really know anything about you guys. In any event, we couldn't think of a way to explain the danger or warn her what was going on."

Isabel nodded unhappily, reluctant to admit the truth of that. Alex's thoughts were going down a different track. "Why is this happening here and now, in the Bahamas, though? Why impersonate you, Maria??" No answers were forthcoming, and after a moment he asked a new question. "Did she look exactly like you right now? The same hairstyle, for instance??"

"Umm, yeah," Maria said, suddenly struck by the significance of the treatments she had made to her hair just over a day ago. She giggled softly, struck by the mental image of a robot master trying to find some appropriate replacement hair to fasten to Amarie's scalp, because the hair was artifical and couldn't be lightened and straigtened in the same way as human hair. Or was Amarie competent enough to take care of such details itself/herself, without needing to go running to her/its creator?

"It was wearing exactly the same outfit as me too... or close enough to convince Liz under the circumstances," she added, feeling more and more worried. "What... what if there are others out there too? Probably not any of you hatchlings, maybe not even Liz. But maybe an anti-Alex or an R-Kyle??"

"There better not be an imitation Alex," Isabel insisted, wrapping a posessive arm around his shoulders. "There's only one, and he's mine. No substitutions allowed." Alex smiled slightly.

"Well, I think that Kyle mentioned at breakfast he was hoping to go with Laurie on this long-distance swimming thing... from here to another beach four miles down... and maybe back if they had enough energy. There's patrol boats and lifeguards in the water every so often, and rest areas marked off for when the swimmers are feeling tired."

"Hmm..." Isabel considered that. "Okay, do we really need to warn them then?"

"Seems like the thing to do," Maria said. "Should keep us busy, anyway." Isabel suddenly realized that Maria was more worried about her cousin Sean than she was letting on, and that diverting her was probably a good idea. "Leave a message up in one or more of the rooms, though, to let the others know where we've gone in case they come back first."

"Of course," Isabel assured her.

"And then, welll - I don't think we can catch up on Kyle and Laurie in the water, the lead they'd have," Alex pointed out. "But we can probably catch a shuttle bus down the coast and head out onto the swim course and wait for them. We probably can't swim back the other way without the lifeguards pitching a fit for causing a hazard..."

"It's a good idea sweetie," Isabel put in. "We'll find a way to make it work."

Maria seemed nervous as they entered the hotel lobby and rode the elevator up to their floor, but there was no sign of another girl looking even vaguely like her.

----------

"Yeah, I have to admit, I find that kind of stuff fascinating," Tess told me even while she was looking out the window at the scenery. Somehow she seemed to have an ability to focus on both things without seeming the slightest bit distracted from either conversing with me or sightseeing. "The blind watchmaker was fascinating - a little hard to get through in places, but..." She sighed and dropped her voice. "The notion that not just human beings, not just life on earth, but life EVERYWHERE would be shaped by some sort of evolutionary processes to adapt to its environment... that those patterns could explain, to a certain extent, why they are the way they are. In a personal way, that's hugely profound in a way that's hard to explain."

Wow. I'd certainly never thought of Tess Harding as a hard-core evolution fan... which possibly showed how little I still knew about her.

"Okay... does that mean you don't accept the idea of any kind of higher purpose or benevolent creator in the universe? Just started out one day because a big bang popped out, and everything that's followed from there is because of the physical laws that just happened to be there?"

"Well, I didn't say that," Tess quickly argued. "Though if there is some sort of God in charge of things, It doesn't seem too interested in making Itself obvious... which possibly is part of the point. As far as a meaning in life... I believe in one, but I'm not sure if it's something that really exists out there in the cosmos, or if it's up to us to find a meaning because we've got minds that are capable of conceiving of nearly anything." She sighed. "What about you, Max? Do you believe in a God?"

"Wow, tough question," I admitted, and after a short pause, Tess opened her mouth as if she was about to change the subject, but I actually wanted to tell her some of what I thought, so I gently cut her off. "For a long time I thought... that if there was a God, and he let me get taken to..." Even though nobody seemed to be paying attention, I didn't want to mention the White Room by name out loud. "--taken to Eagle Rock, if he had delivered to people who could hurt me that much... then I hated him and didn't want to have much to do with him. Since, you know, trying to get payback on God doesn't seem like a good idea."

Tess agreed with that last truth by nodding slightly. "And now?"

"I'm not so sure. It's harder than you might think to tell a blessing from curse... to draw a neat and tidy line between what's worthwhile and what's painful."

"Heck with drawing a line..." Tess laughed. "They probably overlap each other by more than half."

"Yeah... is that one of the things in Kyle's buddhist books?"

"Umm, I'm not sure," Tess admitted. "The Buddhist one I remember is that all of life is painful, whether it's good or not."

"Probably also true," I admitted with a small sigh. "So it seems foolish to hold such a grudge about what's happened to me, and I'm trying to let it go. It's helped to make me into the person that I'm becoming... and I think that's no bad thing."

Tess smiled at that, but there was an oddly wistful look in her eyes at the same time. "I... I really wish that I hadn't come on to you so strongly when I first came to Roswell... it was counterproductive in so many ways, and especially... the distance between us because you couldn't trust me meant that I couldn't help you out with that as a friend. Dealing with the Eagle Rock thing, I mean."

Hmm... now that was another thing that I hadn't expected Tess to ever say. On one level, it made sense... the more she had tried to throw herself at me, way back then, the more I had pulled away and avoided her... including avoidance for most of that summer after our showdown with Pierce and the special Unit. But the way she talked about it... was as if she believed that the two of us would have come together anyway even if she hadn't forced the issue. And though I couldn't see myself ever getting together with Tess while she was still spouting off about destiny and so on. But...

But if Tess hadn't been so annoying and a source of agitation in my relationship with Liz... I guess I thought that Liz and I would still be together, and happy together. I didn't blame Tess for that... if I had, I'd never have let her complete the process of stealing me away from my first love... (okay, it wasn't anything that simple.) The point was... from where I stand here and now, did I wish that Tess had showed respect for what I felt for Liz when she first showed up in Roswell?? Ehh, it was too hard to tell what would have happened if that 'might have been.' Maybe Liz and I would have broken up again anway. Maybe I'd have been saved from the White Room that way, or maybe one of my friends would have been killed by the Special Unit...

WHAM. "Huh?" All of a sudden, my bag had jumped up out of my lap and slammed into the bus window. I looked over at Tess, expecting to see her either shaking her head in denial or smiling mischievously. But... well, maybe a head shake had begun and then gotten interrupted. She was staring in surprise out the window, and I followed her look. Two lanes further over in the road, which put them on the wrong side of the road, was a dark blue car. Slowly I realized that Michael was waving at us from the back seat. He must have used his powers to move my bag as a way of drawing our attention... and they were driving on the other side of the road, because if they'd been in the lane next to the bus, it would be harder for us to see them. "Uh, where's the next place we can get out??" I asked out loud.

Several people sitting it seats nearby groaned, and the bus driver shook his head. "Not for twenty minutes yet, until we make it to..."

"I, I am really carsick," Tess blurted out. "If - if I don't get a chance to feel solid ground under my feet in a few minutes, then I'm going to projectile my breakfast all over, and it isn't gonna be pretty." As you might imagine, that threat was pretty effective on both the other passengers and the driver, and soon the bus pulled over to the left shoulder... (everybody drove on the left here, just like in England, because the english were in charge for so long, or something like that,) and let us and a few other people out. Tess and I took all our stuff, realizing that we probably wouldn't be going back on the bus if there was some emergency important enough to bring the others out looking for us. On the other hand, considering that the car was already pretty full, it would be cram-jammed with the two of us riding in as well. As well as Michael, there was Jim Valenti, who had been driving, Liz, and...

"You've got to help Sean!" Liz exclaimed. "We... we were attacked by a Maria-lookalike android, and I think he might have gotten a minor skull fracture or something.

The breath went out of me in an instant. Sean DeLuca is not my favorite guy, of course, especially considering how close he and Liz have been getting lately, but I wouldn't wish this kind of serious injury on him. Would I be able to tell how to repair it? How long had it been since he was hurt, if they'd had to rent a car and come out and find me. What was all of this about an android? But that last question could wait until later. Sean seemed really out of it, but he was able to open his eyes when I asked him to, and I quickly made the connection. Yes, there was a hairline crack near the back of Sean-boy's head, not big enough for anything to leak through other than a few drops of... whatever fluid that is that the brain matter kinda floats in it. CSF, I remembered that much from my biology classes. F probably stood for fluid, and C for cerebro, though I couldn't figure out the S.

Natural healing of bone fractures takes a long time, but I worked out a better technique three years ago, when Michael broke his leg in three places falling off my parent's roof. (Don't ask what he was doing climbing up there in the first place.) With molecular shaping powers to work with, I can mold bones as if they were made of putty. Didn't even need to borrow bone batter from elsewhere to fill in the 'hole' in Sean's skull, because it was so narrow - just pressed the two sides and fused them back together. There was a little bruising to try and fix while I was in there, a scratch on his arm, and that was pretty much it. As soon as I disconnected and backed away, Sean shook himself and looked around, much more coherent. "What... what am I doing here?"

Liz looked around in panic, but somehow I couldn't let her catch my eye. Mister Valenti just smiled a little oddly. "What... what do you remember, Sean?" she asked tentatively.

"Umm..." Sean was obviously confused by the question, and more than a little frustrated, but he tried to answer as best he could. "We were hanging out near the pool, and Maria came in, acting really weird and saying that there was an emergency. You left with her, and then I thought I heard you yelling for help. I came as quick as I could, and someone was holding you by the arm, so I got set to body-check whoever it was from behind. Too late I realized that it was Maria, and... and that's it. Can't remember anything after being about to hit her."

There was a long silence. "How are we suddenly out in the middle of nowhere," Sean persisted, "and why are Max and Tess here, not to mention Michael and Mister V?"

"We... I think we need to tell him everything," Valenti said softly, though not softly enough that Sean couldn't tell what he was saying. Michael obviously didn't like the idea, by the look on his face. I didn't much either, to tell the truth, but it was hard to argue the case against coming clean very persuasively to myself, especially now that Valenti had tipped him that there was a secret to tell. Maybe he'd done it deliberately, to set us up in a situation where we didn't have much choice, while still leaving room for himself to claim that he hadn't meant for Sean to hear. I decided to wait for a moment, to see what Liz would say... or if she'd say anything.

"Sean..." she hesitated a moment herself. "Do - do you *want* to know everything? It's pretty hard to believe, and long and involved and confusing... but this is a dangerous situation, and I think I agree with, umm, with Jim. You'll be best prepared if you know the real score."

Sean looked around at everybody. "Umm... yes, I think I want to know, but I'm not in any real hurry. If this is a real emergency... should we be just sitting out here and talking?"

"Let's drive back towards town, but not go in just yet," Valenti suggested. "Umm... how about Max and Tess, you sit up front, and Michael, Liz, and Sean can go in back."

"Alright," Tess agreed. "I guess us teeny little girls have to squeeze into the middle seats, huh??"

"Pretty much," Michael agreed out loud.

"Okay, I'm not sure how to begin," Liz admitted.

"Try in the middle," Sean said with a smile.

"Okay, umm... you remember when Michael and Maria left town, a few months ago, and your aunt pitched a fit?" Liz asked. I couldn't see Sean nod, because he was right behind me - we were all in the car now. "Well, they were actually trying to protect Laurie, because she'd been abducted by aliens - or by one specifically weird kind of alien guy, and he was after her again..."

----------

"How're you doing?" Kyle asked Laurie, swimming easily alongside her.

"Umm... not bad. Hope that's a rest area up ahead, though," she admitted.

"Um, yeah, I think so..." Kyle shook slightly in surprise as someone treading water by the side of the 'course', up near the rest area, called out his name. He turned, trying to orient... and nearly slipped beneath the surface in his surprise. Isabel, Alex, and Maria were all waving at them. "What... what are they doing out here?"

It didn't take very long for the five of them to rendezvous. "It'd be really complicated to explain all at once," Isabel said quickly. "I don't really understand all of it, But I don't think you guys should finish the swim. Is that okay?"

"Uhh..." Kyle looked over at Laurie, who shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. What then - swim in towards shore?"

"Yeah, but we don't need to hurry once we get out of hearing range of everybody else," Alex said. They swam a little way. One of the lifeguards seemed about to complain that Kyle and Laurie shouldn't leave the marked course, then apparently thought better of mentioning anything unless they tried to get back ON. Kyle looked at his three friends, trying to figure out something that seemed subtly wrong. For a long time he couldn't figure it, and then...

"Maria? You got your hair wet. Wasn't it supposed to be a day and a half?"

"Ehh." Maria grunted unenthusiastically. "Maybe, but... well, when I realized, I'd already been in long enough to get most of it splashed, and... it doesn't really matter now."

"Yeah," Isabel said under her breath. "If it goes green, at least we'll be able to tell Maria apart from her dupe."

"What??" Laurie exclaimed. "She has a dupe, like those horrible New York killes that Michael told me about? But... but Maria's human!!"

"It's not quite the same," Maria explained. "Liz... Liz said that it was an android. A robot built to look like it was human. I didn't get a good look at it, but I trust her judgement. Right now, I've been calling it 'Amarie' in my head, to set it apart from me." She groaned. "We don't really know that much more about who might have built it and brought it here, but Liz said that it was pretending to be me, asking her questions about Isabel and the other aliens. Also... it attacked Sean, hurt him, and then ran off when Michael and I arrived."

"Oh, boy," Kyle groaned. "Of course, the weirdness wouldn't just let us take a break and enjoy paradise." He sighed. "So... do we think that Amarie was probably built by an alien or aliens?"

"Yeah, that makes sense," Alex said. "Human technology couldn't have done it, unless it was some top government secret or something." He paused, struck by what he'd just said. "Do you suppose that maybe there was a deeper layer underneath the FBI special unit, that was able to hide and retain funding even after Nasedo exposed his batch of alien hunters??"

"Ooooh," Maria groaned, upset by the idea.

"I suppose that it's a conceivability, or something like that," Isabel admitted creatively, "but frankly I'd be more happy with the notion that there's some new alien running around trying to spy on us."

There wasn't much else said until they got close enough in to shore that Alex was able to sink down with his head beneath the water and touch the bottom. (He had four inches of height on Isabel, who was the next tallest of them, so nobody else could easily match the trick at that same spot.) After a little discussion, it was agreed that they should stay out that far from the beach for a little while.

"Well," Kyle said. "If we're going to hang out here, maybe we should play a game or something so that we're not conspicuous. And also to pass the time and keep any of us from getting bored."

"Hmmm." Isabel considered that. "Maybe. But what?"

He grinned a big grin. "How about tag. You're it!" And he slapped Isabel gently on the arm, and quickly backed away as fast as his legs would take him. Laurie was already backing away too, but Isabel, Alex, and Maria seemed to take a moment to realize what had just happened. Then they all erupted into motion - Alex and Maria swimming away from 'it', and Isabel trying to tag one of them before they could get that far. Alex was a little bit too fast, but Isabel managed to touch Maria's back. Quickly as anything, Maria tagged Isabel back on the shoulder.

"Can I get a ruling on tag-backs?" she called out softly, projecting her voice just enough for the others to hear her. Alex, Kyle, and Laurie exchanged a few glances. "Umm... not allowed within a ten-count," Kyle suggested. "Or when it's obviously within ten seconds, even if the old 'it' wasn't counting, like that." Maria shook her head in frustration, realizing that Isabel had been backing away while Kyle had been speaking. She spent a moment deciding and charged after Laurie.

For a short moment, Alex was struck by the oddness of playing a game where one position was designated as 'it', considering how Maria, and the rest of them, had been so careful about calling her android lookalike 'it' instead of 'she'. Then he started to notice that water tag had some of the same imbalances in it as field tag, except possibly magnified because swimming speed tended more towards constants, not bursts of speed like running on land. The very fastest and strongest swimmers in the group - like Kyle probably, would be unlikely to ever be tagged unless they wanted to be... or unless they were being targeted by an equally strong swimmer. Weaker swimmers - and Maria didn't seem to have that much speed at her disposal, could get stuck being 'it' for hours at a time, especially since a strict interpretation of the role meant that they didn't have much time to rest.

So Alex decided to lead the way in trying to cross as closely as possible to Maria without deliberately getting tagged. Laurie and Isabel joined in, (well, Laurie couldn't do it quite the same way since she was still the main object of Maria's pursuit,) and eventually Alex got tagged himself, whereupon he was about to tag Kyle back, and Kyle started to chase Laurie himself. After maybe twenty minutes of that, everybody was tired enough to agree on ending the game.

"Hmm... what happens when the others come back?" Laurie asked. Maria had told them about how Jim, Michael, and Liz had gone after Max and Tess so that Max could heal Sean. "Will... will they find us out here?"

"I've been doing a kind of detector sweep for Max's mind," Isabel said softly. "Should be able to tell when he gets within, erm, a half mile of the beach at least. They'll come that close, will they?"

"I dunno," Alex said nervously. "If Michael and Liz choose to steer well clear of Amarie's likely stalking grounds... it might be a long time before we can meet up."

"Well... it's about quarter to noon now," Kyle said. "We can go and get lunch on one of the rafts - I think I see one just over there." He pointed. "Doubt that a robot will be waiting for us there - she probably can't swim. If there's no sign before, oh, three in the afternoon, then we head into shore. Sound good?"

"Yeah," Maria agreed quickly, and everybody else nodded.

----------

"How long are we going to wait here?" Tess asked.

"Umm... maybe until one o'clock," I said, feeling restless myself. The car had been parked out on the edge of town for a little more than half an hour now, and no indication that anyone was looking for us. Mister Valenti had tried calling into the hotel - Maria's mom was getting increasingly agitated at being told to stay in her room, and nobody else was around there. What had Maria, Isabel, and Alex done, and where had they gone - were they off looking for Kyle and Laurie? Nobody knew where those two would be today.

"What... I blurted out, "What would you think if we told Missus DeLuca about the secret too? Sean seems to... well, he's dealing about as well as Alex was in the beginning, or maybe a little better." I sighed. Liz, Sean, and Michael had gone off walking somewhere... Michael was probably going to demonstrate his powers a few more times for Sean, so that there would be no doubt that Liz was trying to trick him or that his eyes were acting up. "And... and she's in danger too, maybe. Our best shot is for everybody in the group to understand what's going on.

"Hmm." Tess considered that. "Maybe. I just can't help seeing all the problems that that might cause in the long run... for Amy as well as everybody else. I like Missus DeLuca, and I don't want something bad to happen to her because she got dragged into this." She considered for a moment. "On the other hand, I have to admit that it would be nice, in an odd kind of way. I... as weird as this might sound, I have the crazy idea that she might be able to fill some sort of mother figure role, that I never had anybody else for... if she knew the real me and was able to accept me that way."

"Wow." I took in a deep breath. "You're right, that's something of a stretch... but it's not a bad dream. I know that I'm so lucky to have two parents who really love each other and who love Isabel and me so much... we haven't told them our secret, mostly because of the sort of thing you said about it putting them in danger - but I know deep down that they'd love us even if they knew the truth." Of course, I hadn't always been so sure... but I didn't need to mention that.

About a minute went by and then Michael growled, "We need a plan!" I whirled around in some surprise - hadn't seen or heard him approach. "Taking cover made some sense, while we were rounding up the entire gang, but we can't hide for the entire vacation, and even if we could, what would it get us. I don't want to to get home and have to cross-examine my girlfriend every time she comes over to make sure it's really Maria and not some strange robot. Neiher of us have the patience for that kind of routine."

He had a point, I had to admit. Wherever this robot had come from, she could appear just as easily in Roswell as here on the islands. It was even a possibility that the android, or its master, had planned this operation for earlier, and in Roswell, and been caught off guard by our sudden departure. "Okay, finding out more makes sense," I admitted, "but we have to do it carefully. Meet up with the others, pretend that nothing's wrong, except that we kinduv need a new layer of chaperones now. Nobody goes anywhere without one of the four of us being around." Including Liz and Sean, I realized... and it wasn't really fair for Tess and I to keep avoiding that particular guard detail, no matter how awkward it might be. "I suspect that whoever's pulling the strings on this plan, they'll make another move, and if we're on our guard we'll be okay."

"Hmm..." Michael considered this. "Yeah. The way Liz said it... the android knew a lot, but it couldn't really act or talk quite like Maria. That suggests we're not really up against a 'de jure' alien mastermind."

"'De jure?'" Tess repeated with a big grin. "Do you realize you just used Latin in a sentence, Michael, and not quite incorrectly."

He smiled frostily at her. "'Bona fide', 'De facto' and 'De jure' came up in a class last semester. I can't quite remember which one."

"Well anyway," Tess replied. "I've got a power application that might be useful in this situation. We can all manipulate molecular structures, right?" Michael and I nodded at Tess. "Well, how about sensing molecular structures without changing them? That should be a foolproof way of telling if someone is a living creature or an android."

I considered that. "Worth a try. Trying to fathom the molecular structures inside a living person can be disorienting - I speak from experience, but you wouldn't really need to go that far, just figure out what times of molecules, what kind of atoms, are in there." Thought again. "Assuming that androids really are made of metallic substances underneath."

"Well, we can give it a try the next time we know we're dealing with the android," Michael said. "Well come on - all aboard."

I hadn't been meaning to head into town quite this soon, but there wasn't a terribly great reason to wait. Michael must be worried about Maria - his own Maria, the undisputed original.

"Hey, Evans," Sean said as we converged around the car. "Now isn't the time, but some day soon, you and I are going to have a talk. About Liz and alien danger... like killer blue crystals and crazy UFO abductees."

"Sean," Liz said in a soft voice.

"Fair enough," I told him. If I were in Sean's shoes, I'd want to have that talk too. The bottom line was that it had been Liz's choice to get involved in the dangerous situations... or targeting that had been beyond my control. With Brody/Larek, she had been trying to help both Sean and myself out of a tight spot by coming in to deliver those burgers... not to mention Tess, Maria, and Maria's mother...

We charged out towards the hotel and the beach.

----------

"Hey there brother," Isabel said as she strode through the last little bit of surf and up onto the mostly-dry sand, wearing a moderately revealing beige bikini. "Need to make sure that none of us are robo-babes?"

"Nah, I think that's okay," I admitted. Alex wasn't far behind Izzy, (big surprise, especially when she was looking like that!) and Kyle, Laurie, and Maria were also coming out of the ocean, a few yards back.

"I gotcha covered," Tess said, surprising me. "Skin cells, blood vessels with real blood flowing through them, calcite bones. The whole nine yards, robo-free."

"Hmm, not bad," Alex admitted.

"Let's get back to the hotel," Michael said, splashing into the water and throwing an arm around Maria, pulling her close to him without any apparent care for the fact that she was getting his t-shirt wet.

"Alright I guess," Laurie replied. "So, umm, Liz," Alex said as we started walking. Maria mentioned that her evil twin was, umm, was asking you questions about our friends. What were they? It might help us figure out what they're after, what they'll do next. How much they already know."

Liz shuddered. "Yeah, the questions showed a scary amount of prior knowledge, which is why I didn't suspect. Let's see, hmm." She stepped closer to Alex and dropped her voice low, determined that nobody outside our widely spread pack should overhear what she was about to say. The fact that some people in the gang wouldn't hear either was a minor obstacle. "The first time I saw Michael use his powers, Isabel's background back on the alien planet, Max's guiding principle of strategy, and a way to see through Tess' mindwarp."

"Huh," Isabel exclaimed in a low grunt. "One about each of us."

"If Sean and Michael hadn't shown up when they did," Liz said slowly, "it might have started the cycle all over again with Michael, or maybe not. There's no way to tell for certain now."

"And you're right, there's a lot of correct premises in those questions, that show that they have some info already," I put in. "That Michael and Isabel are partly alien at least, and that Tess has the mindwarp power." Big sigh. "So... who is Robot Maria working for?"

"Alex suggested that there might be a second government alien hunting organization," Maria muttered. "One that kept some funding even after the FBI guys got torpedoed."

"Hmm..." Michael weighed this. "Maybe, but it could just as easily be some fly-by-night alien mercenary, who was hoping that we'd be stupid enough to get taken in by his off-the-shelf android and a few cosmetic adjustments. In which case, we're ahead of the game." He looked down fondly at his girl, then quietly muttered "Uh-oh."

"What?" Maria exclaimed, an enormous amount of nervousness crossing her face. "Spaceboy, what is it?"

"Umm... your hair," he muttered.

"Oh, no... I knew something would happen when I went into the ocean too early," Maria bemoaned. "If... if it's just curling a little, that wouldn't be so bad. Is... is it curling? Is it the color??"

"Yeah, it's the color, cuzz," Sean said, after looking over his shoulder at her.

Starting at the very tips, Maria's newly golded hair was turning a light blue.

----------

"Yeah, I'm... I'm scrubbing with my hands and using the tap water from the showerhead," Maria called from inside the bathroom. "It's... it's a little hard to see the mirror from in here, but I don't think it's getting any better."

"Hmm..." Liz considered this. "Try sticking just your head out from the shower curtain so I can see."

"Kay." Liz opened the bathroom door enough to spot Maria. The blue had, if anything, gotten a little worse - if just because whatever reaction had had a little bit more time to work, or because more water was aggravating she couldn't tell. "Yeah, that isn't helping. Are you sure that you don't want to try the shampoo??"

"Come on, Liz. With my luck today, that'll probably turn it purple or something."

"Yeah... maybe." It was definitely a coin flip at best, whether any particular shampoo would be able to clean away the blue stuff or react even worse. "Ummm..."

"I don't get why we're stressing about this so much," Michael said from the door to Liz and Maria's room. "If it stays blue - well, that's a great way to tell her apart from Amarie, right??" Liz turned to glare at Michael and put her finger to her lips. She wasn't worried about the fact that Michael might come in for physical abuse if he continued on this tack... that would serve him right. However, the possibility of Maria charging right out of the shower without a stitch on to begin delivering the punishment was something that Liz didn't really want to happen for several reasons - she didn't really need to get that good a look at her oldest friend, and Maria would probably be humiliated once the flush of anger had faded slightly.

"Oh come on," someone new announced. "This is ridiculous." Liz looked up to see that Tess had entered from the adjoining door, and the petite hybrid girl pushed past Liz and into the bathroom. "Maria, is it alright with you if I use my powers on your hair? I'm pretty sure that I'll be able to fix this once and for all that way." Maria's head poked back out from the shower... she had retreated just before Michael started speaking. "And also... even though you liked the blonde color, we can try darkening it molecularly, so that it'll look nice, and still be different from what Amarie had - this morning. She can probably change to match pretty quickly once she or someone working with her spot you, but still... the same was true of the blue."

Maria considered that slowly. Liz wondered if Maria was as aware that Tess was definitely not using the 'it' pronoun for Maria's android double, but 'she' or 'her'. "Okay, umm... just a second, let me at least get into one of those big huge towels before you start."

"Surely." Tess retreated from the bathroom, and there passed about a minute and a half before Maria emerged, her blue hair still very damp, and her body wrapped from underarms to mid-thigh in a fluffy pink hotel towel. Without ceremony she walked past Liz and Tess and sat down on her bed.

"You can do it here okay?"

"Umm, yeah I think. Any idea what shade you want it?"

Maria considered that for a moment. "Umm... can you make it nearly as dark as Liz's??"

"Uh, yeah, sure I guess." Tess concentrated deeply, slowly brought her hand up, and suddenly a splotch of Maria's blue hair was dark... a rich, woodsy brown with deep red tones. Liz smiled... it was a bit hard to tell with it only being that one patch, but she thought that the color looked nice. Pretty quickly Tess changed all the rest of Maria's hair. When she was done, it seemed like it wasn't quite as straight as before - very slight curves were showing, and Liz wondered if that was because of Tess' powers, or because the same chemical reaction that had made it blue had also countered some of the straightening treatment. It was quite possible, actually, that the curl had been there for a while and Liz hadn't noticed, because Maria's hair had been wet for most of that time, and because the blue was distracting her attention from the shape of the hair.

"Well, that's one crisis dealt with I guess," Michael said with a teasing, tolerant smile. Perhaps he could be forgiven for making light of Maria's hair, since he never seemed to treat his own very seriously. "Now... do we stick around here, or go looking for Amarie, or..."

"Tess has a point, I probably shouldn't go far," Maria said. "It would increase the confusion of trying to identify Amarie in several ways if I were out in public... or maybe I should say that it will decrease the confusion in several ways if I stay put."

"Makes sense," Michael admitted. "Well, if you're staying here at our rooms, then I'm staying right here with you."

"I'm not sure that's such a good idea," Max said as he came out of Michael and Sean's room, followed by Sean. "We can really use your talents further afield, to figure out what's really going on here. I... I understand that you're worried about Maria. But I think it would probably be best for Isabel or maybe Tess to be the one who keeps her company here." Michael frowned, but he apparently couldn't object to Max's reasons.

"In any event, I've got another showdown to get ready for," Maria sighed. "Where's my mom? Where's Mister Valenti?"

"I think they're both in her room," Sean said. "Well, hers and Laurie's, you know what I mean. Why??"

"Did... did he mention if he was going to tell her the whole thing?" Maria asked, her fingers playing over each other nervously.

"Umm, no... what??" Liz exclaimed. "Are you thinking of... of telling her yourself?"

"Not... not all by myself. Jim has to be a part of it. I'm not sure where they want to take their romance, but if the reveal isn't handled right, this huge secret involving me that he was helping to keep from her, then the relationship is sunk." Maria sighed. "But it's time she knew... maybe not right this minute, but damn soon." And she walked up to the door and knocked on it.

"Yeah?"

"It's me, mom."

"Sure, come on in." Maria took a deep breath and slipped through.

"What on earth? Is that a wig or... changed your hair color AGAIN?? Darling, it's just gonna fall apart if you keep this up!"

"Yeah, well, it's a bit of a complicated story, actually."

TO BE CONTINUED...
Read my other roswell stories!

"A man does not make his destiny: he accepts it or denies it. If the Rowan tree's roots are shallow, it bears no crown." From 'the farthest shore', Ursula LeGuin.

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