“It should have been me” Grace kept repeating on loop and she meant it. If only it had been her too then Elizabeth would have someone helping her escape
but she didn’t know how much of monster these creatures were Max mused and Beth feared for both girls, and to know she had stakes in this as she and Max exchanged heart wrenching looks as they comforted their daughter over the fear for her best friend. Max also shared it because he feared what it would do to his best friends in Michael and Maria. He knew only too well as a lawyer what a child missing does to the parents left behind and especially given the fact they should have seen this coming and falling for Michael, and allowing her life to merge with those of the alien hybrids meant Maria exposed her children to this life. Jake was normal. Elizabeth was a product of her and Michael’s love, and the eldest child of their union and now she was in mortal danger.
“Honey,” Max said softly, as he knew he had to do something to try to limit the carnage and to at least protect his daughter because they as parents had taken their eyes off the danger and had them on all the wrong places and people, and he knew he had to protect his daughter because they would come after her, and therefore Grace could sense that there was something different about her father’s tone as she collected herself and the tears started to dry.
“What?” Grace asked wearily.
“Your mother is going back to Madison tomorrow and she has asked if you wanted to go with her, for a long weekend or longer… until you need to be back for final exams” Max asked as he looked at Beth and she nodded as they both knew Grace needed out of Roswell at least for the time being but Grace wasn’t having it and got up and started pacing, and her parents knew the explosion that would result. “I am thinking it might be a good idea…”
“No,” Grace blurted out as she stood and glared at both of her parents. “There is no way in hell am I going anywhere until Elizabeth is found. This is about Jake isn’t it… You want me to be away from him?”
“No honey,” Max shook his head because his own history with Liz warned him to even try to separate his daughter from her boyfriend was
a very bad idea because it will only lead to even more pain and misery “I just told you as much as I hate knowing you’re growing up but you are, and I know it. I like Jake. So, this is not about separating the two of you because while I may disapprove of how intense things are for the two of you and I do think you’re too young for these extra emotions you’re going to dealing with by going to that level with Jake. And I wish I didn’t know sometimes what is going on with the two of you, but in this case, I know, if you’re with him, you’re safe. Instead this is about spending time with your mother and sisters. You can get away, and, it’s mostly about being safe and giving me peace of mind so that we can look for Elizabeth without worrying about you and whether you’re going to be picked up tomorrow…”
“Elizabeth needs me to be here…” Grace asked softly.
“Elizabeth needs you to be safe. With you away from here, away from Roswell, you will be safe and hopefully during your time away, we’ll find her, and she’ll be here when you come home but you need this. You need to get away.”
“I was just away for three weeks and where did that get me?” Grace asked.
“This is different. The stakes have changed. This helps all of us because it’s about protecting this family and protecting you because you are a target in this mess. We can concentrate on Elizabeth and in the meantime you can use the time to get to know your mother and sisters and see where they live, and maybe even scout out Yale… properly this time” Max asked as he was reminded of his daughter’s prior visit to New Haven. “Use the time to access the future, and take some stress off your shoulders, and by being there, then I won’t have to worry, and I can concentrate on finding Elizabeth.”
“But… but…” Grace asked as she turned to Beth as she felt confused as the instinct to rebel against the trip started to fall away because she knew her father was coming from an emotional place as her father, and she knew he was right but she didn’t want to be away from the search for Elizabeth, and especially Jake and yet she knew that being away might calm tensions between her and her father and he wouldn’t have to have a mini heart attack every time she was out of the house, even if it was nothing to do with Jake as she turned to her mother “So, what, you’re really going back?”
“Yes,” Beth nodded as she sensed the inner conflict within their daughter. “I have lied myself into sick leave but my patients need me and I have some important patients to see on Friday, and then yeah your father is right the girls are off on summer break now and while they have things to do, they will love to spend time with you for however long you stay with us. It gives everyone the chance to find Elizabeth and concentrate on her…”
“Jake,” Grace asked.
“Jake will be fine,” Max assured his daughter. “I’ll keep an eye on him, and he’ll be busy with work and whatever else he’s doing…”
“You need me here,” Grace asked.
“I need you safe,” Max murmured. “I need to know you’re someplace safe. Away from here, and away from Roswell. At least until we know more and hopefully, we’ll find Elizabeth in the meantime because being here in a ticking timebomb waiting to go off and for my sanity as well as Jake’s I am sure, he’ll appreciate that you’re somewhere safe.”
“It’s hell for him at home right now,” Grace stubbornly stated
“It will get better and if it doesn’t then he’ll have the motel, right?” Max asked. “He’ll want you to be safe, right?”
“Yeah maybe…” Grace sighed.
“No, yeah maybes about it” Beth smiled. “That boy loves you and he will only want you to be safe and sound and he’ll understand.”
Grace nodded, but she refused to say yes or no. She didn’t want to commit to a decision. “I’ll think about it.”
“I guess that is all we can ask for,” Max sighed. “But while you think about it. You should stay in the house okay so, no more night travel which I know you have done” he said seriously and Grace knew she was busted because unable to sleep many nights, she ended back at the motel and today she didn’t come back home until just now…”
Grace nodded.
“Thank you,” Max said. “I’ll let you go to bed because it’s been an emotional day,” he murmured. “Say good-night to Jake for me, and know I expect you two to just sleep…okay?” Max said surprising both Beth and Grace with is words, but Grace didn’t say anything and only nodded and went upstairs.
“How did you know?” Beth asked as they watched Grace disappear upstairs.
“I have his tracker information, remember?” Max muttered. “I knew he was upstairs the whole time waiting for her, which is what he’s done when she’s not joined him.”
“Wow,” Beth murmured. “Sixteen is rough!”
“Which is why I want her to go with you Beth, because I need her to be safe. She’s not safe here anymore. At least not until Elizabeth is found, one way or the other…”
“You’re beginning to lose hope, aren’t you?” Beth asked as she saw the tension and the terror in Max’s face. “You don’t know if they will find her, or if she will be alive?”
“Too much time had gone by, without a clue” Max murmured in despair because each extra minute Elizabeth was missing meant less hope and especially since they learned what the doctor saw and did, which meant that things were going to get worse, incredibly worse for his god-daughter and that meant a nightmare for his friends. “Which is why Maria is staying at her mothers with the kids. Both she and Michael are beginning to lose hope and if things do go south with Elizabeth than Grace is out there as an inviting target for them to try again… Virginity won’t matter if it gets them their goal.”
“A pawn?” Beth asked fearfully.
“Grace has already proven the ability to become pregnant,” Max feared. “They will come for her if it doesn’t go well with Elizabeth, and if she becomes expendable to those who have taken her, and who are doing those horrors to her, if she’s not there already…”
*
“I heard the fight,” Jake said softly as she opened the door and saw him sitting on her bed. “There was a lot of loud voices,” he asked as she looked at him sitting on her bed. He was without his shirt, and he got off and came to her and they kissed. Taking off her jacket and shirt, and pants she got into bed and just laid with him as they knew not do anything with her parents still awake.
“It’s hell,” Grace said softly.
“You got loud there,” Jake asked as he heard most of the fighting and new a lion share was about him.
“He got loud too,” Grace sighed. “We finally had it out and we needed it. Things are much calmer, as he got his fears out and I got them out too…”
Jake nodded as they kissed and stopped, and just laid together until she said quietly. “Mom is going back to Madison tomorrow, and Dad wants me to go with her?”
“Seriously,” Jake asked as he sat up and looked down at her. “Are you going too?”
“Dad is scared he’s going to lose me,” Grace sighed as she thought of the fears her father had expressed and she was beginning to think that lessening the danger level for her family might be the answer at least in the short term.
“I am scared we’re going to lose you,” Jake said as he could only almost understand his godfather’s worries in relation to Grace as he overheard some of the conversation and knew they were deep, and he knew he couldn’t handle losing Grace after they lost Elizabeth and they still didn’t know if they will get her back and he was beginning to lose that hope, along with his parents and if the did, than Grace became an attractive target if they hadn’t caught the bad guys yet. She would be safer in Madison, even if it was hell to have her across the country. “I would miss you.”
“Me too,” Grace sighed as they kissed and just laid there, clinging together and fearing the worst…
*
They stood downstairs staring at each other. Fearing the worst and knowing the worst could very happen. “I am sorry this had to be your visit,” Max said carefully. “It hasn’t been fair to you.”
“I came into the middle of a hellish experience and I knew it was going to be bad, but I was able to know that you Grace were okay…”
“I don’t think we’re okay,” Max said softly. “But I am more accepting, if you call accepting of the fact that my daughter’s boyfriend is sleeping upstairs in the same bed as my daughter” he sighed. “I can’t have her sneaking out…”
“Are you going to be okay if she does come with me?” Beth asked. “You would be here alone…”
“I am likely going to be spending all my attention on finding Elizabeth and as I said, it will be good knowing I don’t have to worry about coming home and finding out she’s not here or fearing that her tracker marker is going to go missing on the screen of my phone every time I look at it” Max said. “I just wish things could have been different and I didn’t have to send my daughter off to another state to keep her alive.”
“Me too,” Beth sighed. “If she does come with me, would you mind if I let my friend see her… He’s a shrink, actually my shrink…” Beth asked to Max’s surprise. “Yeah that might surprise you but I have seen someone occasionally over the years when things have gotten intense and I saw him when all of this started and while I haven’t seen him since, he has been great for me to talk to him and Grace can talk to him. She seriously needs to talk to someone.”
“I have told her she should, but just like when I was a teenager. There is a confusion when talking to a shrink when you know there is a world out there that a normal person doesn’t know, and our abilities are truly out of this world but she does have a lot of human anxieties lately and it might be good for her to talk to someone.”
“I’ll set it up,” Beth said. “So, you saw someone?”
“Briefly in high school, thanks to my own experience I term the “White Room.” It scarred me and while the visible scars were able to clear up quickly because of my abilities. Unlike Elizabeth, it wasn’t another alien after me. It was the government who was after me, and they got me for a number of hours and poked and prodded me until fortunately I managed to get out away…”
“You did?” Beth said as flashes of the experience started to flicker through her brain.
“Yeah,” Max nodded. “You, Michael, Isabel and someone else we knew came for me and you guys were successful in getting me out,” he murmured wanting to forget Tess. “But things were revealed that made things unsettling and overwhelming for you, so you ended us… and went away for the summer. Once you were gone, and since I was dealing with the fallout of my abduction. I unraveled over the summer and my parents who were clueless as to what I was going through, well, they sent me to a shrink, but I couldn’t talk. The shrink soon got fed up, and the sessions quickly ended but I do want Grace the ability to talk. Especially now given the situation with Elizabeth, and yet she not going to be able to talk about everything in her life…”
Beth nodded.
‘I am just sorry this had to be your visit” Max murmured as his anxiety about the world that their daughter was growing up started to lessen with the ability to look in Beth’s eyes and know that his soulmate was there face to face with him. “I wish it could be different, but I can’t help but think you are right that you and the kids will be safer back in Madison and knowing that, it does me a world of good.”
“Given what you’re facing. Yeah, I am kind of glad they are there too…” Beth admitted. “Max, about July?”
“I want that to still be on…” Max insisted “I need something to look forward to Beth. I need to know it will happen,” he sighed. “I don’t want to let a madman get in the way of that…”
“And if this is still going on?” Beth asked. “You can’t know if it will be over by then…”
“I know you’re worried but unfortunately in these kinds of cases… answers one way or another will come sooner than later. I can’t see how it won’t be over by then as it would be truly rare for it to still be going by then… For such a plan to keep going if it’s not working…” Max muttered quietly.
“And if it’s working?” Beth asked. “For all we know, it has actually worked…”
“To have any kind of sanity amid all this… I don’t want to believe in that kind of success… I have to believe it won’t work, and by the time the kids come here in July that it will be over and that we’ll have gotten Elizabeth back…” Max murmured as he knew they couldn’t survive this situation if it indeed continue for that long because they were barely surviving it now and he didn’t think Michael or Maria could survive much longer, the uncertainty. “This can’t go on that long, can it?”
“You would know this kind of thing more than I do…” Beth said softly as she walked up to touch his arm, and he took her hand and felt it. It felt good to touch her and for her to touch him as they ended up in an embrace as they leaned in for a kiss and they grew in it’s intensity as she took him by the hand and led him down the office bedroom where she had been staying this visit. She had been adamant that she didn’t want to put out Max from the master bedroom.
Once downstairs, he looked at her and murmured. “We shouldn’t, right?”
“You know they aren’t just sleeping upstairs,” Beth said offering a fresh dose of reality to the situation.
“I know, but I don’t want to think about it” Max murmured as he took her in for a kiss and relished in them both using each other to try to forget the confusion or the horrors of their realities, as Max ached for companionship and Beth knew to be a comfort to him as they moved to the bed, and before long they were giving into a passion that was undeniable and yet wasn’t ready to be named yet as they both clung the warmth they brought to each other in the midst of the ugliness of their world, and soon they fell asleep in each other’s arms.
*
This time it wasn’t Beth getting up and leaving as hours later Beth rolled over in bed and noticed that Max was gone, yet leaving a note to tell her that he had to get over to Michael’s and talk to him about the case, and to check in with the office to see how his father was handling the influx of work, and to ask that he refer cases to other attorneys if the need did arise because he wasn’t going to be able to of service, and needed take a hiatus until further notice.
Phillip understood, and Beth did too once she woke up and got up and started to pack her suitcase. She walked upstairs and found a note from Grace saying she had to run an errand, but she was willing to go with Beth. So, Beth called the airline and changed her flights and got one for Grace and text her the information on their flights and finished packing while at the same time calling Serena to check on the kids.
Alexandra and Carrie were safe and sound which made Beth sigh with relief. She wanted that ability for Maria.
So before long she was going for a walk and ended up at the Valenti household. Knocking on the door. Amy opened the door and allowed Beth to come in. “Maria is out back with Belle,” was all Amy said.
“How is she?” Beth asked.
“Worse each day,” Amy admitted. “But she’s trying to be there for the kids and especially Belle who doesn’t understand what is going on.”
“She’s only six, right?” Beth asked.
“Yeah,” Amy nodded. “The boys aren’t much better as everyone is so confused, but they are older, so they know what it means for Elizabeth to be gone…”
Beth nodded. “Can I go back?”
“Go ahead,” Amy nodded as she went into the kitchen and finished making breakfast for the boys, as Belle hadn’t been able to sleep like her mother and had been up too early and so mother and daughter had breakfast together, and now were trying to play outside.
‘Breakfast tea party’ but Beth could tell Maria wasn’t into her as her heart was breaking with every day she didn’t know where her daughter was…
Maria dressed all in in black stopped when she saw Beth and Beth saw the fear in that she was coming to tell her something that would destroy her world.
“I don’t know anything, I promise” Beth was quick to assure the heart broken mother as she sat on the picnic bench. “I wish I could be the one to say that we’ve found her, but I can’t, and I wish I could…”
Maria nodded.
“All done Mommy,” Belle asked as she knew her mother was wanting to talk with the visitor.
“Yes,” Maria said distantly. “Belle, can you go inside and find your grandmother?” she asked of the six-year-old.
“Sure,” Belle said as she rushed into the house and Maria made sure to watch as the girl opened the door and disappear inside the house as she sat out on the picnic table. “Max is not with you?”
“He was meeting with Michael,” Beth murmured, and Maria nodded. “I wanted to come and say good-bye.”
“What, you’re headed back?” Maria asked sitting up.
“Yes,” Beth said. “I am on an early afternoon flight,” she murmured. “I have to get back to work, and Max’s asked me to take Grace with me…”
“What?” Maria asked astonished at the response of Max to let Beth take Grace back to Connecticut “He did…”
“It was actually my idea for her to visit but Max leapt on it to able to make sure Grace is safe and sound somewhere else…”
“I wish I could make sure my daughter was safe,” Maria said with pure emotion on her face. “But it’s probably the right decision. Grace is in danger, the more time they have my daughter and don’t release her, or that we don’t find her…”
“You will find her,” Beth tried.
“We both know that by now, chances are not high” Maria asked as she got up off the picnic table.
“They are getting closer, right?” Beth asked. “They have managed to find multiple hiding spots.”
“But only after they move her…” Maria cried. “And what that quack of a doctor confessed to makes me sick to my stomach, and to know my daughter who was such a fierce go-getting was put through that, and worse by now…”
“She will be found…”
“Will she be alive, or will she even be the Elizabeth we know?” Maria asked as she paced the yard. “You’re right to take Grace away from this town. I wish I could have done it years ago… or that I hadn’t come back here when I became pregnant with Jake. If only we stayed in New York or I had gone Los Angeles. I could have found work and done it the hard way and I wouldn’t be going through this agony.”
“You love Michael, don’t you?” Beth asked surprised to be hearing this from Maria.
“Yes, but I don’t love how being with him allowed this to happen and for Grace to be attacked like she was… Of course we knew there was a threat out there when it was apparent you didn’t die like we believed and was kept away from us, and then almost immediately after you came back to us, Grace is attacked, and then the car accident and then they tried you again… There were enough warnings of a threat, and we didn’t take them seriously. We thought we would see it coming but we were so damn naïve. The threat is too large and too used to winning, and we fell into their trap.”
“They didn’t get Grace, or the car accident didn’t do what they were intending…”
“And therefore, they upped their game and took my daughter. They won…”
“Elizabeth might have been taken. But they won’t win in the end. Maria, you’ll find your daughter and you will defeat the enemy.”
“Not if they have already won…” Maria muttered and knew Beth forgetting what happened in their earlier life was a good coping mechanism but it didn’t allow for the reality that Maria knew too well, in knowing what they had faced before, and what they could be facing in the future… “Beth, they won.”
Beth wished Maria didn’t have to be right.
“At least Grace will be out of sight and mind of the greater threat,” Maria murmured as she thought of her eldest son. “But Jake is not going to like it.”
“Grace tells me things are bad at the house with Michael…” Beth allowed as Maria flinched as she nodded.
“I know,” Maria admitted. “It wouldn’t be much easier here. There is too much anger and feeling defeated. I know my son feels guilty and I wish I could comfort him about it, but I am not much better. As much as Michael was gruff and rough around the collar when we were kids, still he loved being a parent and loved Elizabeth and, in some ways, she was more his daughter than mine. She was so much like Michael that it scared me because she was willing to fight a battle or an enemy than take the cautious approach and that got her in the end. Michael can’t handle what they are doing to her, and I can’t either… And that is why I figured we needed time apart because if we were together, we would do more damage…”
“You love each other…” Beth asked.
“Sometimes love doesn’t help,” Maria sighed. “As you see with Max…”
“Max and I are totally different. I don’t remember the background of our love, which makes it harder. You remember with Michael which helps, and it hurts because you have experienced all the highs and lows together, and you can’t forget. I can, and I have… But that puts me at a disadvantage because Max knows what is at stake. I don’t as much!”
“Sometimes I wish I could forget,” Maria allowed as she wished for Beth’s lot in life, the ability to forget the ugly.
Beth nodded.
“I do know Jake will miss Grace. She has been a comfort for him while his father and I are unable to be there for him…. I know how much time he’s been spending with her. For instance, I know where he was last night, and it wasn’t at home or even that motel room of his.”
“We know,” Beth admitted. “Max and Grace had it out last night about her reliance on Jake…” she murmured
and of her use of sex as a stress relief which is another debate all together. “Things have calmed down…”
“Really,” Maria asked.
“Yeah,” Beth murmured. “It allowed things to come out and fears to be addressed…”
“How so?” Maria asked.
“Grace is feeling guilty just like Jake does but she almost wishes she had been kidnapped along with Elizabeth so she could be there to help her friend escape…” Beth sight the horror of Maria’s eyes. “I know…”
“That would be even worse,” Maria asked. “Yeah two is better than one in trying to get free, and maybe with Grace along, she would have been of some help when my daughter was trying to get her freedom and therefore she would have had backup but it could also have led to even more horrors” she murmured as she recoiled at the thought of having Grace missing along with her daughter. “They would have had the ability to use both of them…”
*
Which is why Beth was confident in that they were making the right decision in taking Grace back East for a visit, as they waited for their commuter flight to Santa Fe at the airport, so they could catch their connecting flight to New Haven. Smiling, Beth exchanged a simple kiss with Max who embraced her tightly as this time he knew she had to go home to Madison for the protection of their kids. So, he turned and kissed her daughter on the forehead, and hugged her. “I love you, remember that always okay… You are my heart” he whispered, and Grace nodded with tears in eyes as Max stopped back and allowed Grace to say good-bye to Jake with a kiss as they exchanged some last moments together. Once their flight was called, she turned and walked onto the plane with her mother as she prayed, they could find Elizabeth so she could come home again…
Max watched them off and sighed and turned and saw Jim watching who was frowning. He had brought Jake to say good-bye to Grace, and now Max could tell Jim wanted to tell him something “What is it, is it Elizabeth?”
“No, it’s Grace…”
“You just saw that she flew off with Beth for however long,” Max sighed but he knew it was the right decision as Jake just stood and waited for the plane to fly off.
“We have to talk,” Jim was saying as they both looked at Jake. “Can we meet at your place?”
“Sure,” Max nodded. “Now that Nicholas and Khivar have driven off my family, I have nothing else to do but look for Elizabeth and save Michael from himself”
Jim nodded as Jake walked up to his grandfather content that Grace was safe and sound. “Thanks for letting me say good-bye,” he said quietly to Max who nodded.
“Be careful, okay. We don’t know who is out there, and it’s anyone’s guess what will happen next.”
Jake nodded and walked off with Jim who was grim because his family was being run ragged and being knifed by an invisible target, and he knew…
That they had just might have saved themselves another calamity for the moment by Grace going off with Beth… because they were coming after them again, and it was obvious now that they wouldn’t rest until everyone was destroyed.
Even the humans.
And Jim feared that they just might succeed…