RATING-Teen
DISCLAIMER-Own nothing from Roswell...make no money from this...you know the drill...so don't sue...please.
AUTHOR'S NOTE-Thanks to vegas312 for beta this thing for me and pointing out better ways to do stuff.Makes me look better than I am at this
.This is my first every dive into UC shipping so please be gentle.From her seat in the back booth of the Crashdown, Tess knew that she shouldn't be watching them but she couldn't help it. She stared helplessly at Max and Liz, who were sitting on opposite sides of the counter, but both were leaning forward with their foreheads close to touching as they whispered together. 'Probably whispering sweet nothings.' She thought with a pang of longing that it wasn't her who was be whispered words of love to.
She was so into her watching that she didn't know someone had walked up to her and was standing right next to her until the person spoke.
"It's rough, isn't it?"
She nearly jumped out of her skin at the voice, before turning to look up to see who had spoken. What or rather whom she found was Alex standing there looking at her with what seemed to be a look of sympathy on his face. "I beg your pardon?" She shook her head to clear out her melancholy thoughts, so that she could get "I'm more superior and you bore me" look that she liked to use with the humans.
"I said that it's rough." Alex repeated himself as he slid into the other side of the booth with his back to Liz and Max. "It's rough knowing that the person you care about most in the world doesn't return your feelings."
She felt her pride take a major sting so she let her anger bubble up some. "How the hell would you know what its like?" She snapped at him. She didn't want anyone feeling pity for her or believing that she needed any kind of helping hand.
If Tess's anger fazed him, he didn't show it for he only smiled sadly while motioning his head a little over to the side. "Oh, I think I know a little of what you're going through right now."
Following his slight head movements, she turned her gaze across the dining room only to find the one and only Isabel Evans sitting in a booth. The tall, statquest blonde was currently slid up as close as she could get to some guy and was apparently hanging on every word he was saying.
"You know it might have hurt some, okay it hurt a lot when Isabel broke up with me. Still I understood why she did it and was supportive of her decision." He said as the two of them continued to watch the Grant and Isabel show. "But when she started going out with the tall, dark, and Mr. Geologist over there right after she specifically told me she couldn't be with anyone, well it hurt bad."
Tess turned away to look at him as she heard the sadness, the hurt, the anger, and finally the registation that there was nothing he could do to change what was going on.
"I guess you do know a little of what I'm going through." She admitted softly not really wanting to share her pain with him and not really wanting to know his either. 'How does he stay so calm about it?' She wondered briefly before shaking her head. Her lips quirked up in a sad smile. "But tell the truth Alex. You're happy that Max choose Liz not me."
"Of course, I'm thrilled that Liz is with the guy she loves, and that she's happy right now." He nodded. "But I am bothered that it had to come at your expense and that you're hurting."
She flinched at the words not used to anyone but the Valentis actually worrying about her feelings. Blinking back the tears that threatened to fall, she sniffed quickly and cleared her throat. "Well..." She gave a quick glance over at Isabel before turning back to smile at Alex, "I think Isabel would have been a lot better off if she had stuck with you instead of that Grant guy."
"Why thank you Tess!" Alex returned the blonde alien's smile.
The two young people sat silently for a few seconds each lost in their respective lost, before Alex suddenly slammed his fist down hard on the table causing everything including Tess to jump slightly.
"Okay, I've had enough of this crap!"
"Enough of what crap?" Tess's eyebrows rose up in confusion.
"Enough of us sitting here feeling sorry for ourselves crap." He explained. "I say you and I get the hell out of here and go have some fun."
Fun? It had been so long since she had done something fun that she almost had forgotten what it was like to have fun.Having fun? She had spent most of her life from the time she had come out of the pod preoccupied with learning everything about her supposed Destiny not being able to really act like a teenager and just enjoy life. Fun was starting to sound like a great plan to her.
With that thought in mind she grinned happily at Alex. "What do you have in mind?"
"Well they're showing 'Mutant Zombies From Outer Space' part nine over at the Cinema. It's guarantee to be low budget plus a stinker, so what I suggest is that you and I go over there. We'll buy two tickets not to mention an obscenely large bucket of popcorn, and have some fun making fun of the movie. What do you think? You up for it?"
"Mutant Zombies From Outer Space?" Tess felt the giggles that were threatening to bubble over. She had to do her best to fight them back.
'I don't giggle damn it!'
"It's part nine. Don't forget that." Alex added that last bit as if it would be the factor that made Tess decide to go.
It must have for Tess took one last wistful look at Liz and Max at the counter before turning to smile at Alex. "You have a deal let's go." She held her hand out and he took it with a grin before giving it a quick shake.
With that the two of them left the Crashdown without either one of them looking back at Liz, Max, Grant, or Isabel again.
~~~~~~
Sitting at the kitchen table, she couldn't help but smile as she looked at the old and almost completely faded movie ticket stub in her hand. She still had a hard time believing that it had been just over ten years since that fateful day at the Crashdown when her and Alex's life had changed forever.
True to his word Alex had paid their way in, and had bought the largest bucket of popcorn the movie theater had to offer. It had been freaking HUGE!
Even between the two of them, they had barely managed to eat half of the extremely large bucket. They did find use for the other half of it by throwing it at the movie screen when the movie had indeed got so bad that they just had to heckle it. To be honest it had been the most fun she'd had since, well to be honest it had been the most fun she had ever had. It had all been thanks to Alex.
Soon she and Alex were spending a large amount of time together. They had went to see a lot of movies...a whole heck of a lot of movies.Enjoying the good ones and heckling the bad ones. Of course, they spent most of the time at bad movies heckling them since it was such fun. They had spent so much time together, that she really couldn't tell when their feelings for each other had begun to change. It had been a gradual thing until almost a month later that it had hit them.
They were dating!
A soft smile touched her lips as she remembered the shock at first, then they found themselves smiling stupidly at each other . They had agreed that they were indeed dating and that they would like to continue doing so.
From there normnal going outs had become official dates, but the funny part was how no one in their group had noticed their status. That hadn't been much of a surprise seeing as how Liz and Max were always joined at the hip and inseparable, while Michael and Maria were always busy with their normal fighting and making up routine. The only one to noticed had been Kyle, but he never said anything seeing as how he soon found his time occupied dating the new girl at school, Serena Sinclair. Of course, that had only left Isabel, who as normal was too busy playing her Ice Princess role with Grant to notice anything other than her own little life.
So their dating went unnoticed until that stupid crystal jellyfish thing had killed Grant. Isabel found herself alone and as predicatable expected to find Alex waiting for her to show a scrap of attention. Much to her surprise and dismay when she went looking for Alex, he wasn't there and wasn't waiting for her It had taken her a little time to find out what was going on, and when she realized that Tess was the new blonde alien in Alex's life, well Isabel went ballastic with jealous fury.
When Isabel spilled the beans to the rest of the group, not everyone took it as bad as she did. To Michael it hadn't even been an issue to him, and he just shrugged in that way that only Michael could. He stated that it wasn't none of his damn business that they dated each other and left it at that. The Valentis only had smiled and nodded happily as they knew that Alex was a good guy, while Max was relieved that no one was going to try and get between him and Liz. However, he did offer up a token defense on Isabel's behalf, but even that was half hearted.
Maria and Liz like Isabel were furious at the whole idea of Alex dating Tess at first as they were pretty sure that he was going to get his heart broken. But soon the pair saw how happy their best friend was and let the matter drop.
So in the end the only person who had a problem with it had been Isabel. She was so sure that she could win 'her' Alex back that she did everything she could think of to accomplish this. Everything from wearing red almost everyday to trying to sneak into Alex's bedroom via the window. This had gone on for weeks until Alex had sat her down and kindly reminded her that it had been she who had ended things with them. How it had been her to give him the 'can't date anyone right now' speech. How it had been her that had hooked up with Grant soon after that.
He told her that like her that he also had found someone else to love and be with. He wiped away her tears and let her rant and yell at him all the while not giving in as he might have done months ago. Now all these years later things were still a tad tense between Alex and Isabel, especially after her recent divorce from Jesse.
Tess's reminiscing was interrupted by the back door being flung open by her daughter as she came running into the house at full blast while Alex slowly brought up the rear.
"Ha ha I beat you daddy!"
Tess smiled as she watched her husband limp his way into the kitchen while their daughter made lap after lap around the kitchen table.
"Yeah...*gasp*...squirt...*gasp*...you did." Alex sputtered out as he collapsed into the chair next to Tess.
"Karen sweetie you know you're not supposed to run in the house." Tess fought back her smile as she gently admonished her daughter.Their four year old daughter was the perfect combination of them.She had gotten her short stature and her hard head from her mother.While her good nature and dark hair all came from her father.
"Sorry mommy!" The little angel smiled up as she skidded to a halt in front of her mother "Can I go watch Sponge Bob?!"
"Yes but keep it down ok."
"OK!" Karen ran out of the room completely forgetting her mom's no running rule just a second ago.
Tess shook her head and than turned to look back at her husband who was still sitting in his seat,bent over at the waist trying to catch his breath.
"You need me to call an ambulance?" Tess giggled out.
"Ha..ha..very...funny." Alex gasped out as he did his best to straighten up in his seat. "She had me running around the yard chasing her for the last THREE hours! I'm getting too old for this."
"Oh I don't know, you didn't seem too old last night." smirked Tess "You were all full of energy then."
"Oh liked that did you?" Alex returned the smirk before reaching over to grab Tess and pull her into his lap.
"ALEX!!" Tess squealed as she landed in her husband's lap and he started trailing kisses both on her mouth and down her neck "We can't get started doing this. Karen's in the house."
"So?"
"So if she walked in here now we might scar her for life."
"Damn" He sighed and stopped the kissing reluctantly. "You think we might be able to find us a babysitter tonight?"
"Oh I'm sure if we asked them nicely, then Kyle and Serena wouldn't mind if we dropped their favorite niece off for a short visit."
"I'll go get her ready to go, you make the call woman." He gave her one last kiss before lifting her off his lap and making his way into the living room.
"Hey squirt, you want to go stay with your Uncle Kyle and Aunt Serena for a while?"
"YEAH!"
Tess smiled as she made her way to the kitchen phone. As she dialed the number, she couldn't help but think that some times life doesn't end up like you thought it would. Instead, sometimes it turned out even better than a person could wish for. She looked at the faded movie ticket sitting on the table and felt that indeed that life had turned out just perfect for her.
THE END