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Title: "Never underestimate Fate" Author: Kat/Calinia Email:calinia@wildmail.com Category: M/L, K/T; DA Xover, Post Max in the City, but Liz told Kyle about Future Max instead of Maria Rating: To be on the safe side, let's say MATURE for now, ADULT maybe later Disclaimer: I don't own anything, so don't sue, I'll cry.
Summary: Liz is an X5, who escaped from Manticore along with her brothers and sisters when she was eight. She hasn't had contact to any of them ever since and has no idea what happened to them.
She ended up in Roswell, where the sheriff arranged for Nancy and Jeff Parker to adopt her right before they moved back to town to open the Crashdown Café. Only her parents, the sheriff and Kyle - her best friend - know about her past and about the fact that she was adopted.
On the night of Max's return from New York something unbelievable happens, that's gonna irrevocably change Liz's life forever, as well as those of a few other people.
Author's Note: Well, I really love DA Xovers, and when the idea for this story popped into my mind I just couldn't resist writing it down. There isn't that much of the DA-side of the story in the beginning, that will come later on.
I also always wondered what Max and Tess' relationship would look like if Tess gave up on destiny, and since there aren't a lot of fics out there where Tess and Max are friends, that's gonna be one of the main focuses of this story, along with Kyle and Liz's friendship and the relationships between Max and Liz as well as the one between Kyle and Tess, cause those are my favorite couples.
Awards:
Round Five - Best Author of a Crossover
Round Four - Best Crossover Fanfiction
Prologue
The car pulled up in front of the dark, deserted-looking building and the driver jumped out of it to hurry around and open the door for his passenger. The man got out of the car and quickly made his way over to the entrance of the headquarters for their operation.
Tonight was the big night, the actual start of the operation they had been preparing for for the last few months. He loved the rush of adrenalin the start of a mission always brought him, the thrill of danger it caused, the satisfaction that came along with finally putting a plan that had taken months to be perfected into motion.
The headquarters was an old warehouse on the outskirts of Roswell that had stood empty for years, not too far away from the Crashdown. There was an old, spacious bunker beneath it that no one knew of, the perfect place to keep someone hidden for a few months. It was sound proof and had only one exit, so there was no chance for her to escape, especially with the extra help they had.
He made his way through the hall to one of his men to find out if the preparations were completed. The look of blank terror on his face told him that they weren?t. He inwardly smiled at the man?s reaction to him. He was petrified. Petrified of what he might do to him for being the bearer of bad news, even though he was in no way to blame for the delay. His mood improved even more, and so he decided to let it slip.
This time.
He did after all need all the men he could get if he wanted this operation to run smoothly, and this one had always proven to be trustworthy and reliable. Not that he really ever trusted anyone. Too often there would be traitors in your own rows, just like the one that had been discovered a few weeks ago. Not that that was something he had to worry about any longer.
He went down to the bunker to make sure that at least there everything was prepared. It was.
Another one of his men came up to him. "Everyone has arrived, sir."
"Good. Is everything ready??
?The final preparations are being finished this minute."
"Finally," he bit out, making his subordinate jump, which once again cause the man to inwardly smile. The power he held was exhilarating, exciting, enticing. He loved every minute of it, bathed in it's glory and let it take him to unknown heights. To finally be on the very top, without having to answer to anybody was something he was never willing to give up again. One taste, and he was addicted. And he would do everything to make sure it stayed this way. And if his plan succeeded, nothing and nobody could stop him.
"I will be up in a minute.? The more-than-nervous inferior left and the man glance around the room one last time.
Perfect. Everything was perfect.
Last edited by Calinia on Fri Aug 19, 2005 5:53 pm, edited 55 times in total.
Tact is for people not witty enough to be sarcastic. holier than thou | katastrophee Updated 03/16/07 | Updated 02/10/08
Liz glanced at the clock. It was almost eleven o’clock and she was finally finished closing up the Crashdown. She had sent Maria home right after closing because she could no longer stand her constant questioning, and she knew that she couldn't escape Maria once they were alone.
Normally her transgenic abilities sped up closing enormously when she was alone, but that night her thoughts had kept drifting back to earlier when Max had come to see her. He had told her that he'd like them to be friends, which had made her heart soar, giving her hope that maybe things could be okay between them again, but then he had asked her if she had slept with Kyle.
She hadn't expected that, was frozen into place, her mind racing, trying to find a possibility to keep her promise to Future Max and the world from ending, but to not hurt Max more than she already had. Coming up with nothing, she could only nod her head.
And once again her heart broke at the crushed look on his face.
She hated lying to him. She saw the doubt swimming in his eyes along with the confusion, not understanding any of the things that had happened between them. Or between her and Kyle. She knew that he wanted to believe that she was lying, that she hadn't given herself to Kyle and that she still loved him, only him. But she also knew that he was giving up hope. He had been angry, and hurt, but now he was beginning to accept it as the truth and trying to cope with it.
And Liz hated that. She hated him even considering the possibility that she could ever betray him like that. She hated him not just knowing, like Kyle had insisted he would. She hated having to keep her distance. And she hated lying to him.
Granted, it wasn't exactly something new, since she had never told him about her past or what she really was. But there was a huge difference between keeping a secret from somebody and openly lying into their face.
Liz wanted nothing more than to rush over to his house and tell him the truth, about Future Max, Kyle, Manticore, everything. To once again feel his strong arms around her, making her feel safe and cherished and loved.
And most of all, to once again have him kiss her senseless.
It had been a very lucky coincidence that she had gone into heat while Max was in New York. Had it happened a few days earlier nothing could have held her back and away from him, and her secret would have most likely been revealed. She didn't know if she should be happy or sad about that. And she didn't know what she would do the next time she went into heat. She wouldn't be able to stay away from him again, and nothing and nobody would be able to hold her back.
But could she risk that? Maybe she should leave town when the time came. If she stayed in Roswell, jumping Max would only be a matter of time and with certainty inevitable. And if that happened Max would find out everything.
Last spring, when the flashes had started between Liz and Max, nobody had understood what had caused them. Except Liz. She knew it. It was her heat. She didn't know why, or how it caused the flashes, but she was absolutely sure that it did cause them. She'd only ever had them while being in heat. When she had run into Max in front of the café shortly after coming back from Florida she was just in the end phase of her heat, and a simple touch was enough to let her see stars.
So staying in Roswell in three months when her next heat was due wasn't a possibility if she really wanted to keep her secret a secret. But did she want that? Future Max had looked so sad, so grief-stricken when he’d told her about Michael and Isabel's deaths, he had been so desperate to change the future. How could she risk Max losing his family like that?
And what about her own family? The end of the world meant the death of all the people living in that world, and she couldn't bare the thought of losing her family. Not only Jeff and Nancy, but also her brothers and sisters.
If she even still had brothers and sisters.
She had no idea what had happened to them after the escape from Manticore, hadn't had contact to any of them. Were they hiding in plain sight like she was, leading what seemed to be normal lives? Or were they always on the run, never staying in one place too long? Or had they been captured again? Or were they maybe even dead?
She didn't know.
Just like she didn't know what to do about Max.
She did however know how he would react if she told him the truth. He would instantly forgive everything, telling her that there was nothing to forgive, that he always knew that it wasn't true, putting all the blame on himself for coming back in time and asking something so horrendous of her. And then he would tell her that they could be together, no matter what. That now that they knew what to expect, they could change the future. That they could make Tess stay even though they were together. Max always believed he could control everything.
But Liz wasn't so sure. Tess still wanted Max, that much was obvious. And she wasn't sure that Tess wouldn't just up and leave when she realized that she and Max would never be together. Nothing else held her here. She didn't have a family, didn't have any friends except Max, Isabel and Michael, and they were only friends because they were the same species. Whatever had been developing between her and Kyle was probably over too. No emotional ties at all. And she was sure that Tess wouldn't sit around watching Max with another girl.
Liz sighed, coming out of her daze again. A glance at the clock told her that she'd spent another ten minutes lost in her thoughts. She slowly made her way to the back of the Crashdown, turning off the lights on her way. In the dark she made her way over to the stairs to go up to their apartment. She never reached them. Half way there she felt a tingling sensation at the back of her head, and then everything went black.
Max arrived at school extra early, hoping that he would get the chance to maybe talk to Liz before first period. He hadn't been able to sleep anyway, and so he’d driven to school while the sun was just rising. He knew that it was stupid and pathetic and the last thing he should be doing, but he couldn't help it. He'd missed Liz in the past few weeks.
Hell, he'd missed her in the last few months.
And yesterday... it had almost been like it used to be so very long ago, before their first kiss and before Tess came to town, and before they found out about their destiny - simply before everything had gotten so complicated. At least until he’d had to ruin it and ask her about Kyle again.
He knew he shouldn't have done that. Not again. But he just couldn't let it go. Something was off. He didn't know what, but he knew that there was more to Liz's behavior than she let on. She was keeping something from him. And judging the way she had been acting lately, it was something big.
Why had she warned him about not giving them the Granolith at the summit? How had she even found out about it in the first place? And what was it that only she knew, but nobody else? And how had she found out about that? And why wasn't she willing to tell him about it? He was after all the king of Antar, their leader. If there was something to be known about the Granolith, then he should be the first person to know it.
Max sighed. Nothing was making sense anymore. With every passing day the pile called something's-not-right grew bigger and bigger. And the way things looked Liz was dead set on keeping whatever she was hiding a secret.
And he hated that. He hated Liz not trusting him enough to share whatever it was that she had found out with him. He hated her keeping her distance. He hated having her large, beautiful, soulful doe-eyes practically begging him to trust her while the words coming out of her mouth as well as her actions kept pushing him farther and farther away. And most of all, he hated seeing her suffering.
She'd never in a million years admit it, but he knew it all the same. He could see it in her eyes. It was true what they said about the eyes being the windows to the soul. And what he saw in her eyes was pain. Her mouth might be able to lie to him, but her eyes never could. Liz had never been good at hiding her emotions, and now was no exception. She was suffering. She was in as much pain as he was, if not more.
Like yesterday, when he'd asked her about Kyle. The first time he'd really come out and asked her to her face if she had slept with him. Her eyes had gone from sparkling with laughter to burning with pain within a millisecond. But that wasn't the only thing he'd noticed. He hadn't missed her brief moment of hesitation. He'd practically been able to see her mind going a mile a minute, trying to come up with something else to tell him other than to confirm it once again.
And that was something he couldn't let go.
Why?
Was it because it wasn't the truth after all? Or had she just searched for a possibility to spare him of even more pain? Or both? He knew Liz, and he knew that she would never - could never - give herself to someone she didn't love. And she didn't love Kyle. At least he hoped she didn't.
He knew that she hadn't loved Kyle when they had dated. He had after all seen into her soul countless times, and all he had found there were platonic, sisterly feelings for Kyle. Had that changed?
When he had kissed Liz in Whitaker’s office there had been a connection between them, if only for a second, and he had been so sure that he could feel her love for him, even if she had desperately tried to hide it from him. But why? Why was she suddenly so adamant about him being with Tess?
He had been so sure that she was coming around, that he had slowly but steadily been wearing down the wall she had built around her heart after returning from Florida.
And then, from one minute to the other, everything had suddenly changed. She’d set him up with Tess, had come to his room begging him to let her go.
And he would have, had he been convinced that that was what she really wanted. But something told him that it wasn’t. That she wanted him as much as he wanted her, that she still loved him. At least he’d thought so until the night of the Gomez concert.
He’d had such great hopes for that night, for what it could be for them. If things had gone according to plan, it would have been the turning point of their relationship. How wonderful it would have been to go to the concert with her. And how much better staying at home could have turned out to be…
But instead of turning into the best night of his life, it became the worst. He couldn’t remember ever feeling so much pain. What he’d gone through in the White Room had been nothing compared to seeing Liz in bed with another guy, laughing, joking, smiling. When had she last smiled at him like that? He couldn’t remember. All he ever saw in her face, in those beautiful expressive eyes of hers lately was pain.
Was that true? Did he really only ever cause her pain? Maybe she was right. Maybe if he really loved her he would let her go. But could he do that? Could he really let the girl he’d loved as long as he could remember just slip through his fingers?
Maybe he could, but he sure as hell didn’t want to. And he wouldn’t, not until he found out what was really going on.
With that decided, he made his way through the halls of West Roswell high that were slowly filling up with students over to Liz’s locker to wait for her. They needed to talk.
Liz felt the haze that had settled over her mind hours ago, plunging her into a restless, dreamless sleep, slowly being lifted off her mind as she woke up. The first thing she became aware of was the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, and that every single muscle of her body was practically screaming with pain. The last time she'd felt so beat had been back in Manticore.
Then she realized that she was lying in a bed. Her bed.
How had she gotten there?
The last thing she could remember was going into the backroom of the Crashdown to go upstairs. But she couldn't remember actually doing that, or taking her usual quick shower, or changing into her PJs, or going to bed.
What the hell?
Liz stood up, immediately regretting it as a wave of dizziness overcame her, and the feeling that she was going to be sick grew stronger. She stumbled towards the bathroom, fighting the darkness that threatened to overtake her as well as the sickness and made it there just in time to not make a mess of her carpet.
Back in her room she sunk down on her bed. Was she ill? No, that was impossible, X5's didn't get ill. Maybe having lapses of memory was another fault the X5's had, along with the seizers. But why hadn't it happened before? And why did she feel like she had just run a marathon, or rather a few? Had she gotten into a fight last night, and couldn't remember it because her opponent had knocked her out? But what kind of person could simply knock out an X5? And why couldn't she remember any of it?
She checked to see if she had any bruises or other injuries she wasn’t aware of, but couldn’t find anything. Maybe she had a concussion. That would explain her getting sick, as well as the lapses of memory. But how had she gotten it? And why didn’t her head ache, at least not more than the rest of her body? And she wasn't sensitive to the sunlight that was streaming in through her bedroom window.
Sunlight? Shit! She was going to be late.
Liz jumped up and ran back into her bathroom, doing her best to ignore the dizziness. She hurriedly brushed her teeth, splashed water into her face and put on some lip gloss and mascara. She then got dressed - dark hip-hugging jeans and a white, frilly blouse - while getting the stuff she needed together, running back once again to grab her biology folder, and then sweet talked her mom into driving her to school. If she hurried she'd make it in time for her first period class.
* * * *
Kyle once again glanced over at Tess. They were driving to school together in Kyle's car, like they had been doing every day since Tess had moved in with them. But it was different now. No more chatting, no more teasing, no more playful banter filled with sexual tension. Just silence.
Another glance in her direction told him that Tess still wasn't looking at him, instead she was staring out of the window. Like she had been doing every day since he’d pretended to sleep with Liz.
And she wasn't talking to him. If he asked her something she'd just answer with a simple "Yes" or "No", and if it was a question that couldn't be answered monosyllabicly, she would just shrug her shoulders. That is, if she responded at all.
It sucked. It hurt. Hell, hurt wasn't even a word to describe how he was feeling. They had gotten along so great before the whole Future Max fiasco that Kyle had dared to hope that maybe there was something developing between them, something more than the playful banter and teasing that had been going on ever since he had returned from football camp.
But now she wasn't talking to him anymore, she refused to look into his eyes, spent practically no time at all at home – at least not while he was there – and avoided him whenever she had the chance.
And what surprised him more than anything was that he desperately wanted things to go back to the way they'd been before.
Or get even better.
He liked Tess. A lot. But he hadn't realized it until it was too late. And whatever it was that had been going on between them, it was gone now.
Tess was still staring out the window, not looking at him, ignoring him. And he was sick of it. He wanted her to talk to him again, to stop acting like he wasn’t even there, to say something, anything. And he would get her to do just that, no matter what it took.
"Tess?"
"Hmm?"
He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. What could he say? 'Sorry that I slept with my ex-girlfriend, it didn't mean anything, especially since she isn't my ex-girlfriend and we didn't really sleep with each other'? Or maybe 'Hey Tess, I just realized that I like you, wanna go out with me? Yeah, sorry, I had to sleep with Liz before coming to my senses'? That would go well with her. If he was lucky she’d just go on hating him, if he wasn’t lucky she’d go on hating him AND blast his car.
He didn’t know what he could say to her to make things between them better again, and so he just closed his mouth and turned his attention back to the street. His love life was already as messed up as possible, he didn't want to ruin the one other important thing in his life and crash his car – or have it blasted.
"What?" Tess bit out, making him jump.
Woah, did Tess just say something to him? "Did you just say something to me?"
"Yeah. Are you okay? You look sort of...stunned."
"Oh...uh...fine. I'm fine. ”
“Well, what did you want?” she asked, this time a little less gruffly.
“What do you mean what did I want?”
“You said my name. Normal people only do that if they want to ask that person something.”
Oh my God, did she just say a full sentence to him? Okay, her voice might be dripping with sarcasm, but at least she was talking to him again. That was definitely an improvement.
“Oh…right…yeah, um…well…I was just wondering, if you, like, maybe…um…wanted to, you know, do something tonight. Like, I don’t know, watch a video…or…something.”
“Watch a video?” Tess asked after a moment of silence.
Oh my God, did she just say another full sentence to him? Well, technically not a full sentence, but still, it was close enough.
“Yeah, well, you know. A video.”
“Tonight?”
Okay, that was a step back. Another one of her one-word-answers. But at least it had more than one syllable.
“Yeah. I mean, only if you don’t have other plans of course. If you do we could also do it tomorrow, or the day after, or maybe on Friday-”
“Kyle, you’re blabbing.”
“I am? Oh, um, right. Sorry.” Oh God, could he sound any more like a complete moron? He was blabbing. He needed to stop spending so much time with Maria. Not that he really did spend much time with her, but still, it was obviously too much. Oh God, now he was even blabbing while talking to himself. Oh God, he was actually talking to himself. This had to stop.
“I’d like to.”
“What?!?” Did she just say ‘I’d like to’?
“I’d like to.”
“You would?” Kyle asked, having to hear it once again to be completely sure that he wasn’t just imagining things.
“Yeah. So, what d’you wanna watch?”
“I don’t know. How about Mars Attacks?” he asked with a grin.
Tess rolled her eyes and gave him a playful slap on his arm. “Dork,” she said, trying her best to sound annoyed. But she was smiling at him, making him smile in return and causing a giddy feeling to spread inside him.
Man, you’ve got it bad.
* * * *
Still lost in thoughts Liz rushed to her first-period class. She was late, due to oversleeping, and confused, due to what had happened last night. Not watching where she was going, she ran straight into a solid wall of lean, male muscles when rounding a corner.
Strong arms reached out to steady her, and she instinctively knew who they belonged to. She would recognize that touch, that wonderful masculine scent that immediately surrounded her and dazed her senses anywhere. It took all her control to hold back the soft moan that threatened to spill from her lips. She was glad that he was holding her up, because her knees had gone weak the moment he’d touched her.
Looking up she found herself gazing into the most beautiful amber eyes she had ever seen, now clearly laced with concern. “Are you okay?” he asked.
“Max,” she squeaked, trying desperately to once again gain control over her ragging hormones. Damn aftereffects of her heat. “Oh…um…yeah, of course. Great.” She swallowed. “Um…sorry ‘bout that.”
“It’s okay.” He paused a moment, gazing intently at her, making Liz’ breath once again hitch in her throat.
“Are you sure you’re okay? You don’t look good.”
“I…I’m fine. Really. I just didn’t…uh…sleep well last night.”
Max didn’t look convinced. “Are you sure? Maybe you shouldn’t have come to school today, you look beat. I mean, projecting yourself all the way to New York must have been pretty exhausting. You should give yourself some time off to rest and recover from everything.”
Liz couldn’t help but smile at the concern Max was displaying. It had been so long since he had last worried about her. “Max, I’m fine, really. I’m just tired.” Yeah, tired and feeling like she’d been run over by a truck.
But she couldn’t tell him that. He’d probably make a huge fuss, and would of course want to know what had happened.
And how was she supposed to answer that? ‘I lost a few hours last night and don’t know why, but I think it might have something to do with the fact that I’m a genetically engineered transgenic soldier, created by a secret government organization on the quest to make the perfect soldier in order to have a chance against evil aliens trying to invade our planet.’ That would go down well with him. Especially if she mentioned that she was just getting over her heat.
How would he react if she just jumped him like every fiber of her body was telling her to do? If she buried her fingers in his hair to pull him into a long, hard, passionate kiss, wrapping her legs around his hips, pulling him close and grinding into him…
“Liz?”
Liz came out of her daze, realizing that she had been starring at Max. She blushed, embarrassed that she had been caught openly gawking at him while imagining to ravage him in the middle of the school. “Um, I should get going. I’m already late.”
“Yeah, I’ll see you later.”
“Bye Max,” she said, once again giving him a small smile.
Tess was sitting in the car next to Kyle and staring out the window. They were on their way to school. It was the first time that they were together since her return from New York. She had avoided him at all costs up to now, not coming home till late on Sunday and then going straight to bed.
Not that she had been able to sleep.
She had tossed and turned all night, and when sleep had finally come she’d been plagued by strange, unsettling dreams about Liz telling her how great her night with Kyle had been and about walking in on them while the were going at it in his room. Her room now.
She shuddered at the thought.
She just didn’t understand it. How could he do that after everything that had happened between them? How could he just run off and crawl into Liz’s bed even though they had had plans together?
Granted, Kyle offering to ‘trim her lamp’ and her accepting couldn’t really be called having plans, and she hadn’t even really been serious about it at that time, but still.
It hurt. Not that Kyle had slept with Liz – she didn’t care about that – but that he had chosen Liz over her. What was so special about Liz Parker that all the guys wanted her?
Or was it that she was so repulsive?
God, she hated this. She hated what Kyle had done to her. Before coming to Roswell her life had been fine. She had known that one day she would meet Zan and that they would fall in love again like they had back on Antar. And all those silly feelings humans had to deal with had been none of her concern.
And now she was plagued be exactly those feelings 24/7 and all she could think of was Kyle.
When had that happened anyway? When had her obsession with convincing Max that they were meant to be together been replaced by an obsession with Kyle? What had caused that? Was it because Liz Parker had once again gotten the man she wanted? Not that she really wanted Kyle for herself of course. She just didn’t want him to want Liz Parker.
That was when Kyle’s voice interrupted her thoughts. “Tess?”
He sounded so hesitant, so unsure. Almost as if he, well, did care after all.
“Hmm?”
Kyle opened his mouth as if to say something, but then closed it again, obviously having changed his mind. And he stopped glancing at her like he had done every two seconds ever since they had gotten into the car. Tess was surprised that they had yet to crash into something. Instead he kept his eyes focused on the road, not once looking over to her.
And she didn’t know why, but for some reason that annoyed the hell out of her.
“What?” It came out harsher than intended, but somehow it was satisfying to see Kyle flinch at her tone. Or was it maybe just her voice? He looked kind of surprised, almost shocked.
"Did you just say something to me?" he asked.
He was surprised. What was wrong with him? It wasn’t like she never talked to him. Well, maybe except in the last few weeks. Okay, he had every right to be surprised. But what did he expect? That he could jump into bed with Liz and she would act like nothing happened? Not that it was really any of her business. She sighed. This situation just sucked. "Yeah. Are you okay? You look sort of... stunned."
"Oh...uh...fine. I'm fine,” he stuttered.
Kyle was stuttering? What the hell?!? Was he… No, that couldn’t be. Kyle wasn’t nervous. Kyle was never nervous. Why should he suddenly be nervous? Only one way to find out. “Well, what did you want?”
“What do you mean what did I want?” he asked.
Okay, this was getting weirder and weirder. Why did he suddenly look like a dear caught in the headlights?
“You said my name. Normal people only do that if they want to ask that person something,” she said, doing nothing to keep the sarcasm out of her voice.
Once again, what was wrong with Kyle?
“Oh…right…yeah, um…well…I was just wondering, if you, like, maybe…um…wanted to, you know, do something tonight. Like, I don’t know, watch a video…or…something.”
So he was nervous. Nervous about asking her if she wanted to do something with him? Something as simple as watching a video together, which they had done dozens of times before?
Did that mean...? No. She really shouldn’t go there. Hoping that Kyle did care about her after all was just stupid, nothing but wishful thinking. She knew that, but she still could do nothing to keep that glimmer of hope from warming her heart and making her all giddy inside. What the hell was going on with her? Opening up to Kyle was just a guarantee to get hurt again.
Wait a minute, not ‘again’. She hadn’t gotten hurt yet. Nothing Kyle could do could hurt her. Nothing anybody could do could have an influence on her emotional state, right? Maybe she was disappointed, or upset, but definitely not hurt.
“Watch a video?” she asked, trying her hardest to keep her voice steady and from giving away the mixture of hope and fear and doubt and anticipation racing through her veins, or the fact that her pulse had gone up a notch. How did he always manage to do that to her?
“Yeah, well, you know. A video.”
She still couldn’t believe it, she just had to ask again. “Tonight?”
“Yeah. I mean, only if you don’t have other plans of course. If you do we could also do it tomorrow, or the day after, or maybe on Friday-”
He was blabbing? Kyle was actually blabbing? Oh my God, he really was nervous. And worried. Worried that she’d say no. Worried that she wouldn’t want to do anything with him.
And how on earth was she supposed to react to that? Him being nervous was starting to make her nervous. She was starting to actually feel things. And she hated that. She hated the way he could always do that to her.
“Kyle, you’re blabbing,” she said, trying to sound irritated but failing miserably.
“I am? Oh, um, right. Sorry.”
Oh, what the hell. “I’d like to.”
“What?!?”
Guess he wasn’t expecting that. “I’d like to.”
“You would?”
He still couldn’t believe it? Did that really mean that… No, no exploring that dark avenue. Better to get him talking again. “Yeah. So, what do you wanna watch?”
“I don’t know. How about Mars Attacks?” he asked with a grin.
Tess rolled her eyes and gave him a playful slap on his arm. “Dork,” she said, trying her best to sound annoyed, even though she was anything but. He was teasing her again, and smiling at her, and laughing, and she couldn’t help but be happy about that. And it made her smile too.
* * * *
Liz didn’t show up at her locker. Max waited for her until the first bell rang, and it was high time for him to get to class. But he couldn’t help worrying about her. Liz was never late. Never. And she hadn’t missed a single day of school as long as he could remember. Meaning she’d never missed school at all in the past 9 years.
Was something wrong with her? Was she sick? Had her projecting herself to New York done something to her?
Oh God, no. Don’t let it be that. He would never forgive himself if something happened to her because of him.
He’d almost reached the classroom when he was ripped out of his thoughts by someone crashing into him. Someone small, soft, with the smell of strawberries surrounding her. He didn’t have to look down to know who it was.
Liz.
She was here. She was okay. Thank God.
He automatically reached out to steady her, holding on longer than necessary, but he just couldn’t let her go. She was here after all. She was okay. She wasn’t sick.
Or was she?
She didn’t look good. She was pale and looked tired, like she hadn’t slept at all that night. And it would be typical for her to go to school even though she was sick.
“Are you okay?” he asked her, not even trying to hide his concern.
“Max,” she said, sounding almost surprised to see him there. “Oh…um…yeah, of course. Great.” He saw her swallow. “Um…sorry ‘bout that.”
“It’s okay.” But he still wasn’t convinced that she really was fine. He searched her face, looking for signs of what might be wrong with her, but finding nothing. “Are you sure you’re okay? You don’t look good.”
“I…I’m fine. Really. I just didn’t…uh…sleep well last night.”
Liz was stuttering? That didn’t exactly help to convince him that everything was fine. And he instantly felt guilty. Was this his fault? Was she exhausted because of projecting herself to New York? Or even sick? Was it too much for a human to handle? Was she even still human? Was maybe the alien side he had obviously left behind while healing her starting to come through, causing some sort of damage while doing so?
“Are you sure? Maybe you shouldn’t have come to school today, you look beat. I mean, projecting yourself all the way to New York must have been pretty exhausting. You should give yourself some time off to rest and recover from everything.”
Liz smiled at him. She was actually smiling. When was the last time she had smiled at him?
“Max, I’m fine, really. I’m just a little tired.”
And then her thoughts seemed to wander off, all the while she was staring at him.
And if he didn’t know better he’d almost think that it was lust he saw in her eyes. For him. Was he just imagining things or did her eyes really just glaze over with desire? Just the thought of the possibility that that could be true caused his breathing to become labored and his pants to tighten. Thank God his shirt was long enough to cover the front of them.
If she stared at him like that for one more second he wouldn’t be able to control himself any longer and just grab her, drag her off into the eraser room and do all the things he’d only dreamed of for the past few years. But that wasn’t an option.
“Liz?”
She blinked, coming out of her daze, and then blushed. And once again it took all of Max’s control to hold himself back. She looked so cute when she blushed.
“Um, I should get going. I’m already late,” Liz said, not meeting his eyes. Was she embarrassed? Did that mean that he had been right about the desire in her eyes? That she still wanted him?
He wanted nothing more than to dwell on that thought, but he was already late, and so he just said “Yeah, I’ll see you later.”
“Bye Max,” she said with a small smile playing over her lips.
Kyle was sitting in the kitchen, trying to finish a paper for English while waiting for Tess to get out of the shower so that they could go to Blockbuster and get some videos. Needless to say that Kyle hadn’t thought of his English paper once during the last ten minutes ever since Tess had announced her plan to take off all her clothes. It didn’t matter that she was in another room with the door locked, probably even sealed with alien powers, and that he wouldn’t in a million years get a glimpse of her. Just knowing that she was naked with water running down her body was enough to set Kyle’s imagination on over-drive.
And so instead of doing his homework he was fantasizing about Tess in the shower, drops of water running down her smooth, pale skin. They would start at her forehead and then run down that cute little nose of hers and over her full pink lips – God, what he’d give to get the chance to kiss those lips. And then they would continue down her throat, pool at her collarbone a little until continuing it’s path down the valley between her full, round breasts…lower and lower down her stomach, reaching her navel, and then even lower until they came to the triangle of dark curls between her legs – or maybe they weren’t dark after all – and then even lower until…
A loud bang along with a few nice curses from the bathroom startled him out of his thoughts. That’s when he realized just how much his wandering thoughts had affected him.
He was hard.
Hell, hard wasn’t even a word for what he was. His arousal was straining against the fly of his jeans, and he was sure that Tess would only have to take one look at him to know exactly what was going on. And he couldn’t let that happen. He didn’t want Tess to get the wrong ideas and think that he was just interested in getting laid. Not that he would mind that. But it wasn’t all he wanted, and so he had to do something. A cold shower was out, as was relieving himself. And spending the whole night with a pillow on his lap wasn’t an option either.
He knew that it wasn’t gonna get any better with only a thin wall separating him from a very naked, very wet Tess, and so he decided to go get the videos by himself. Maybe some fresh air would help him to gain control over his ragging hormones as well as his ragging erection. He grabbed his car keys and headed out the door.
After arriving at Blockbuster and spending another ten minutes in the car thinking of dead fish he went inside. The first video was easy: Mars Attacks. But what else should he get? What would Tess like?
* * * * *
Tess was standing in the shower, enjoying the warm water running down her back and thinking. She didn’t know why, but she was nervous. Why was she so nervous? It was just Kyle. They’d watched videos together dozens of times before. What was the big difference?
Okay, they hadn’t spent a lot of time together in the last few weeks, but that couldn’t be it.
He slept with Liz, and she was still angry at him for it, but that couldn’t be it either. It didn’t explain why she felt all giddy and why this mixture of fear and anticipation was welling up inside of her.
Why did she even care that much that he slept with Liz? It wasn’t any of her business. They weren’t dating. They hadn’t even kissed. And whatever it was that had begun to develop between them had been strictly physical. Definitely not emotional.
So why did she suddenly have all these foreign and very much unwanted feelings running through her, taking her appetite away and giving her restless nights?
If she was honest with herself she’d have to admit that she was not just angry, but also hurt. But why? Why had Kyle sleeping with Liz hurt her so much? They’d dated last year, so Kyle was of course attracted to her, why else would he have dated her? And so of course he wouldn’t say no if she offered her bed to him for a night.
Had she even been his first? The thought of Kyle sleeping with other girls sent a bolt of jealousy through her.
Wait a minute. Jealousy? She was jealous? She was jealous because Kyle had slept with Liz?
No. That wasn’t possible. Because if she was jealous that would mean that she…liked Kyle? That she actually had feelings for Kyle? That she was maybe even in l-
The bottle of shampoo slipped from her fingers and landed on her foot, causing her to jump back in pain and crash into the shower door. She cursed, not sure if it was because of her foot or because of the epiphany she just had.
But it was true. She liked Kyle. A lot. She had feelings for him. Strong feelings. Why hadn’t she realized that earlier?
Her legs were suddenly too weak to hold her up and so she sank to the shower floor and pulled her knees up to her chest. She was in love with Kyle. She was actually in love with him. When had that happened? When exactly had she given up on her destiny to hanker after a simple human? When had she gotten so pathetic?
How was she supposed to act towards Kyle now? Would he know? Oh please God no. He couldn’t find out. She felt stupid enough the way it was with him having no clue about her feelings for him, like a silly school girl having her first crush.
And there was something else stirring inside her. She felt…naked. Okay, she was naked, but she didn’t mean the physical aspect, more the emotional one. Was it vulnerability? What the hell had Kyle done to her? She’d always been in control of her life, of her emotions, everything. And now she suddenly felt lost and scared and unsure, but at the same time it felt like…home.
The water was starting to get cold and she realized just how long she’d spent in the shower. She stood up, almost surprised that she didn’t fall to her knees again. She turned off the shower, stepped out of it and dried herself off with a towel. When had she stopped using her powers for that?
With a wave of her hand she dried her hair and curled it the way Kyle liked it, and then repeated the process to apply her make up. After putting on a pair of jeans and a light blue tank top she left the bathroom to look for Kyle and tell him that she was ready.
But when she walked into the living room it was empty, as was the kitchen. She searched the rest of the house. Nothing. He was gone.
* * * * *
Kyle wandered along the isles of Blockbuster, in search of a second movie. Chick flicks were out since Tess hated anything sappy, as were all those stupid teen movies. And she didn’t like action movies either. Maybe something with Robert DeNiro? He was her favorite actor after all. Or something with Christina Ricci? He knew she liked her too.
But all the movies he would have thought fitting were already gone. When he went into the last isle he’d almost given up hope. That’s when he found it: the perfect movie for Tess. He knew she’d love it. He checked out the movies and hurried back to his car. Tess would probably wonder where he’d gone.
* * * * *
Tess couldn’t believe it. She searched the house again, went down into the basement, checked the garage and even the back yard, but he was gone, as was his car.
He’d just left. Again. Had he gone to Liz for another roll in the hay? Were they still sleeping with each other? Maybe this had started a long time ago. Maybe Kyle wasn’t at football camp over the summer after all but instead in Florida with Liz. Maybe they were back together. Maybe this had been going on for months. Maybe they fell back in love with each other.
Oh God. This couldn’t be happening. Not to her. Not Kyle and… No. Just the thought of them together made the bile rise up in her throat.
And it hurt.
It hurt so badly. She couldn’t remember ever being in so much pain. Hell, she couldn’t remember ever being in pain before in the first place.
The tears were pooling up in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. Never would she cry over a man, especially if he was just some stupid human. Crying was something for weak people. For emotional people. For humans. And she just wasn’t weak, and she wasn’t emotional, and she sure as hell wasn’t human. She wasn’t. She didn’t want to be. She would not cry.
Oh, hell. She was crying. She was crying. She was actually crying. Over a guy. Over a human. She couldn’t believe it.
And then her pain turned into rage.
Who the hell did he think he was? What gave him the right to play with her like that, to just go and break her heart? To run off back into the waiting arms of that slut when they had plans together? Again.
That was it. She had enough. Of Kyle, of the gang, of Roswell. She was just sick of everything. She would leave. Just up and leave without telling anyone. That would show them. Or maybe it wouldn’t. They all hated her, treated her like shit. They didn’t care anyway. He didn’t care anyway. Nothing was holding her here. She wanted to just sit down to have a good cry and wallow in self-pity, but she wasn’t that kind of person. She wasn’t weak. She wasn’t emotional. Her decision was made and so she headed into her room to pack.
Liz was once again closing up the Crashdown alone. She’d been doing that a lot lately, but she didn’t mind. It gave her time to think, and it was calming to have the restaurant all to herself and to put everything back into order, to clean up the huge mess the crowds had left behind in less than an hour.
She only wished she could do the same with her life.
But they way things looked everything was falling into place on its own again. Her run-in with Max in the morning had been…there wasn’t really a word to describe it. It was like it used to be between them last year, before they had given in to temptation and kissed. Maybe they could become friends again. And maybe someday in the far, far future they could be more than friends again.
But not now. Definitely not now. She just couldn’t risk that.
But could she risk telling Max the truth? Would she be able to stay adamant about them not being together? Would she be able to resist Max?
She knew that he would insist that they could be together no matter what, and that she would never be able to convince him otherwise.
And judging by the way she’d reacted that morning to such a simple, innocent touch… At that moment she’d thought that it was because of her heat, but now she wasn’t so sure anymore. Maybe it was just because it was Max. When had she ever been able to stay away from him, heat or no heat?
Never.
That was why she’d spent the summer in Florida in the first place, to stay away from temptation, and to have time to steady her resolution. It was why she’d taken the job as Whitaker’s assistant. But it hadn’t worked. Nothing worked. One look from Max and her oh-so-steady resolution was gone with the wind, nothing more than a faint memory.
She sighed. She was getting nowhere. Her thoughts went round and round in circles, never coming up with anything new. She just didn’t know what the right thing to do was, and no matter how much she thought it over, she’d never come up with the answer to that.
A knock on the Crashdown door startled her out of her thoughts. Glancing up, she was surprised to see Max standing there. She made her way around the counter and over to the door to unlock it.
"Max, hey," she said after opening the door for him, trying not to appear too excited.
"Hi Liz," he replied.
"Do you wanna come in?"
"Oh, um, no thanks. I, uh, saw light and I thought it might be you closing up, and I came over to ask you what pages we have to read for Biology."
"Oh, well, let me take a look. I have my folder right behind the counter," Liz said. She didn't really have to look into the folder to answer that question, she knew exactly what their assignment was because of her photographic memory, but she wanted to keep Max here with her as long as possible.
Max followed her inside and she pretended to look up the right pages in her folder before telling him.
"Well, uh, I'd better..." Max began before he was interrupted.
"Do you want something to drink?" Liz blurred out. "A Cherry Coke maybe? On the house of course."
Max hesitated. "I don't want to keep you up."
"Oh, you wouldn't. Really." Liz hardly slept more than two or three hours a night anyway, and she didn't even need those few hours every night, but she wanted to be rested in case anything came up.
Max still hesitated, so Liz just turned around and poured him a Cherry Coke while she got herself a big glass of milk.
"Here," she said while placing it in front of him.
"Thanks," he answered with a small smile while sitting down on one of the barstools. "I see you still haven't gotten over your milk-obsession."
Liz smiled at that. "Nope. I'm afraid I'm hopelessly addicted."
Max sniffed at his drink before carefully taking a small sip. Liz raised an eyebrow at him. "You sniff at your drink?"
"Oh, um, it's just a habit. Isabel accidentally got drunk during the summer cause her drink was spiked, and she went wacko. I just want to prevent the same thing happening to me."
"You think I'd spike your drink? The last time you got drunk was enough for me, thank you very much," Liz said in mock annoyance, a mischievous smile dancing over her lips.
"Oh God, don't remind me of that," Max said clearly embarrassed.
"You started it,” Lit reminded him with a mischievous grin. “But it was a nice demonstration of your powers you gave me. Me and any other citizen of Roswell who would have happened to come by."
"What exactly did I do?" Max asked, dreading to hear the answer.
"You still don't remember?" Liz asked surprised.
"No, nothing. The last thing I know is taking a sip of alcohol, and the next thing I can remember is standing on a stage in front of a crowd of people."
"Yeah, I'd say you're missing quite an important chunk," Liz said cocking her head to the side, the mischievous smile still in place.
"How bad was it?"
"Well, that depends. How bad would you say using your powers to draw a glowing red heart onto my balcony wall in front of a human who doesn't know what you are is?"
Max turned pale. "I did that?"
Liz couldn't help but giggle at the shocked expression on his face. "Mmm-Hmm. But don't worry, nobody saw anything, and Kyle was too drunk to notice that there wasn't any paint around. And at least they radio crew didn't catch you in bed with another man," Liz told him.
Max choked on his drink. "What?"
"While we were out on the balcony admiring your piece of art, Kyle and Doug started to wrestle in my room and landed on my bed on top of each other just when the radio people came, who then of course proceeded to announce that on air."
Max couldn't help but smirk at the thought of Kyle and Doug caught in a compromising position in bed together. Kyle deserved that.
Then he saw the mischievous twinkle in Liz's eyes, and he knew that that wasn't all. "Okay, spill. What else did I do?"
"Well, let's just say I had a hard time explaining to Kyle how you got up on the roof of a building with a ladder like you'd claimed you had even though there was no ladder."
Max's smirk left his face to be once again replaced by a shocked expression.
"You also changed one of my photographs with your powers while Kyle was in the same room. It was a picture of Alex, Maria and I, but now it's one with Max, Max and Max on it. And two of the Maxes have female bodies wearing the Crashdown uniform. Then I burst into your little party, and you showed me the red glowing heart. We - or rather I - then decided to get out of there since your state of drunkenness obviously had a bad influence on your ability to make wise decisions. We ended up on main street where you first turned a lantern into a disco ball, then let the alarm of a car go off, turning the sound into a melody and then you let a few parking meters send off a shower of sparks."
"I did that? On Main Street?" Max asked, suddenly very pale.
"Yup," Liz replied, smirking. "And nothing I could have done or said would have stopped you. Believe me, I tried. And then when I was trying to get us a taxi you decided it was a better idea to flag down the KROZ van. That's how we ended up on that stage."
"And then I came back to my senses."
Liz hesitated for a second before nodding. Telling Max that he had kissed her before the effect of the alcohol wore off probably wasn't a good idea. She had carefully avoided telling him about all the romantic aspects of that night, scared about what that might lead to.
Liz's moment of hesitation didn't go unnoticed to Max. Was she leaving something out? While being drunk he had very obviously known no inhibitions, and at that time it had been hell to stay away from her. Had something else happened during that night? Had he tried to win her back? Had they kissed? Had they maybe even done more than kiss? The questions began pilling up, adding even more to the huge amount he already had.
Should he ask her about it? He really wanted to know. But maybe it was better if they avoided topics like that at the moment. Their friendship was more than just fragile right now, and bringing up the romantic aspect of their relationship probably wouldn't help the situation.
But this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance. He was here alone with Liz, and she wouldn't be able to avoid him or his questions right now. The decision wasn't a hard one to make. But he wouldn't ask her about the night of her blind date. He had so many much more important things to ask her. Like what she knew about the Granolith.
"Liz..." he began, but was interrupted as the door to the back swung open, revealing Liz's dad.
"Liz sweetie, are you... Oh, hi Max."
"Hi Mr. Parker," Max replied, disappointed that his chance was gone.
"I just wanted to see if you were finished yet," he told Liz. "It's already pretty late," he said.
Max took this as his cue to leave. "Um, yeah, I should be going. Thanks for the drink Liz. I'll see you tomorrow at school."
"Um, right, tomorrow. Bye Max," Liz replied, trying to hide her disappointment at being interrupted by her dad. He had a horrible timing, almost as bad as Maria. But beside the disappointment there was also a warm feeling spreading inside her. Max had said he'd see her tomorrow. As in he wanted to see her tomorrow. As in they'd talk some more tomorrow. She sighed and made her way upstairs after turning off the lights with a silly grin on her face.
After checking out the videos Kyle jumped into his car and hurried back home, not caring if he was driving too fast. Tess was probably already waiting for him, and he knew from experience that she wasn't exactly the most patient person on the planet.
When he finally reached his house - after almost causing about seven major traffic accidents - he parked the car in the driveway and hurried inside.
He expected Tess to be in the kitchen or the living room, but both were empty. Where was she? "Tess?" he called out.
Suddenly the door to his room flew open and Tess came barging out. "Where the hell were you?!" she yelled, causing Kyle to jump back a few feet. Yup, definitely not the most patient person on the planet.
"Blockbuster," he replied quickly, holding up evidence in the form of the two videos, hoping to lessen the intensity of her very obvious anger. She looked like she was ready to kill him. "I thought I'd go and get the videos while you're in the shower so we could get started sooner," he said, trying to push the image of Tess naked under the shower - which had of course popped up again - to the back of his mind.
"Oh," Tess said, suddenly surprisingly calm. Was she really satisfied with that answer? She didn't seem to be the least bit angry anymore.
"Why didn't you just write me a note?" she asked, sounding slightly annoyed.
"I didn't think it would take this long. Sorry, I'll write one the next time," he replied. Wow, she was really letting him off the hook easily.
"Yeah, well, it's no big deal," Tess said.
Huh? No big deal? When he came home he could practically see the steam coming out of her ears and now she was acting like it didn't matter at all? Women! He'd never understand them.
"So, what did you get," Tess asked.
Kyle held up the first video for her to see.
"Mars Attacks?" she asked unbelievingly.
"Yup," Kyle grinned. "This movie is an absolute must for every alien on the planet if you ask me. And I promise you'll like it. The humans in it are awfully stupid."
"Oh, so it's an art-imitating-life-thing?" Tess asked smirking.
"Hey, I resent that," Kyle replied in mock exasperation, secretly thrilled that Tess was teasing him again. Maybe things could go back to how they used to be after all.
Tess settled down on the couch to watch the previews while Kyle, who didn't want to see them anyway, went into the kitchen to make them some popcorn. When it was finished he brought it into the living room along with two cans of coke and a bottle of Tabasco sauce for Tess. He sat down on the couch as close to Tess as he dared and put the bowl with the popcorn on his lap.
They watched the movie in silence, their fingers occasionally brushing against each other when they both reached into the bowl at the same time. Every time their hands touched a bolt of electricity would shoot through Kyle's body, making him very glad that the bowl was on his lap and therefore covering his state of, uh, excitement.
When the movie was over Kyle hesitated to get up, but since it was already dark outside and the only light in the room came from the TV screen that was now dark too she wouldn't see him anyway. He stood up and went over to the VCR to change the video.
"So, what else did you get?" Tess asked.
"Ghost World," Kyle replied, suddenly nervous. What if she didn't like the movie after all?
"Ghost World? The movie with Thora Birch? I always wanted to see that," Tess replied, causing Kyle to let out the breath he hadn't even been aware of holding.
"Yeah, I thought you'd like it," Kyle replied, trying to sound casual, even though he was thrilled that Tess was happy with his choice. She was smiling at him and he was smiling back at her with a silly grin plastered on his face, and at that moment everything seemed just perfect.
Kyle quickly put "Ghost World" into the VCR and sat down next to Tess again, this time a bit closer than before.
During the next one and a half hours or so the distance between Tess and Kyle somehow became smaller and smaller, as if they were drawn closer to each other by an invisible force. By the time the movie was over Tess’ head was resting on Kyle’s shoulder and she was snuggled up against him under a blanket.
Kyle didn’t dare move, he didn’t want to risk ending this moment. When Tess didn’t move either he thought that she might have fallen asleep. That would certainly explain her being so close to him. In the past few days she had avoided him like the plague, and there had been absolutely no physical contact between them. And now she was snuggled up beside him? Yup, she was definitely asleep.
“Tess,” he whispered, and to his surprise she turned her head to meet his eyes. She wasn’t asleep after all.
“Hmm?” she mumbled, obviously already quite sleepy.
“Just wanted to make sure you’re not asleep,” he said, noticing how soft and warm and inviting her lips looked, especially when she talked. God, what he’d give for just one kiss.
“I’m not,” Tess told him, completely oblivious to Kyle staring at her mouth every time she said something.
Kyle suddenly became aware of how close they actually were. He could feel the side of her breasts pressed against his chest, her hair was tickling the side of his face, and her hand was resting on the spot right over his heart.
“So I noticed,” Kyle replied in a low voice, still staring at her lips. Almost on its own accord his head slowly lowered itself towards hers, his lips moving closer to her lips. Before he reached them he hesitated, waiting to see if she would pull back. So much had happened in the last few weeks, he had no idea where they stood.
But she didn’t pull back, and so he slowly closed the rest of the distance between them and brushed his lips over hers ever so lightly. He could feel her tremble under his touch, and taking this as an encouragement his lips returned to hers, still light as a feather, enjoying how soft and warm and smooth they felt under his.
Tess was stunned, completely taken by surprise. Kyle was kissing her? He was really kissing her? God, and what a kiss it was. So soft and sweet and tender - it made her feel special and cherished and… loved? She couldn’t remember ever feeling so good, so happy, so complete.
Kyle’s hand made its way up to cup her face, his thumb gently brushing over her cheek, making a shiver go down Tess’ spine. She was in heaven. She could feel the rapid beating of Kyle’s heart under her hand, and knowing that this was affecting him just as much as it was affecting her made it all the more thrilling.
He was taking his sweet time, moving in slow motion, exploring every inch of her lips, making Tess want more with every passing second. He finally brushed his tongue over her bottom lip ever so lightly, silently asking for entrance which Tess immediately granted. She parted her lips for him, dying of anticipation. Never had she wanted something as much as she wanted Kyle at that moment. And never did she want this sweet torture to end. This moment was perfect, pure bliss.
Kyle was about to deepen the kiss when a loud crash suddenly made him and Tess jump up and apart. Jim was standing in the door, surrounded by shards of glass. There was a big, bulky object lying on the floor that looked awfully like an old typewriter.
Oh no.
His dad wasn’t planning on continuing that cheesy novel he had started years ago, was he? Kyle thought. He had given the first few chapters to Kyle to read, and he had thought that they were absolutely horrible. It was a story about a small-town sheriff solving a huge mystery – totally predictable, and simply screaming midlife crisis. He had known who the culprit was after the first chapter.
The old Remington had obviously crashed against the glass of the door since there wasn’t actually any glass left in the door, it was all on the floor.
Tess went over to Jim, and with a wave of her hand the door was repaired again. Had he seen them kiss? she wondered.
“Thanks Tess,” Jim said smiling at her before picking up the typewriter.
Guess not.
“So, what do you need that for?” Tess asked, not seeing Kyle, who was frantically waving his hands in the air, shaking his head and making cutting motions across his neck.
“Thought I could continue writing my novel,” Jim replied, the pride evident in his voice.
Kyle suppressed a groan. Here we go again…
* * * * *
An hour later - after listening to every little detail about Jim’s novel and watching Kyle repeatedly bang his head against the kitchen table - Tess was in her room, unpacking her stuff again.
She suddenly felt foolish for her reaction earlier. What had she been thinking? Kyle wasn’t the type to go back on his word. If there was one thing Kyle was, it was loyal. He had been the one to ask her to do something that night, and she’d really thought that he’d go and run off to Liz when they had plans, real plans together? Yeah, right. Like Kyle would ever do something like that.
And Tess was determined not to let the thought of Liz and Kyle spoil her mood. She was ecstatic after what had happened that evening. Not only had they spent a wonderful evening together, Kyle had kissed her. They had kissed. Well, technically it wasn’t quite a kiss, but it would have become one if Jim hadn’t interrupted.
She wasn’t sure what that meant, or even why she had let him after everything that had happened in the last few weeks, but for some reason she didn’t regret it. His lips against hers had evoked feelings deep inside of her that she didn’t even know existed. Not even when Max had kissed her last spring had it felt that right, had she felt that good, that wanted. Maybe because Kyle had done it on his own accord because he’d wanted to, and not because she’d mind-warped him into doing it.
But why had he wanted to in the first place? Why had he kiss her? Did he maybe have feelings for her too, just like she had feelings for him? Or was it just physical attraction? Had he just acted on impulse without thinking about it? Or both? Or all three things?
She’d always known that Kyle was attracted to her, he’d never tried to hide it. But the way he’d kissed her – so softly, and hesitantly and tenderly… wasn’t that a sign that he really cared for her, that it wasn’t just something physical?
Tess collapsed onto the bed sighing. Like she’d ever be able to answer any of these questions. She didn’t exactly have a lot of experience when it came to guys, how was she supposed to know what the things they said or did meant?
Nasedo had always told her that she was destined to be with Max, that he was her soul mate, the love of her life, and so she’d never really been interested in anybody else. Sure, she’d dated occasionally, and she’d kissed guys before, but that was only to keep up the façade of being a normal teenager. And now she just didn’t know what to do, or think.
Tess got up and sighed once again. This wasn’t getting her anywhere. Dwelling on the kiss was pointless, she had no idea why Kyle had kissed her in the first place, and how he felt about it now. She’d just have to wait and see what happens.
She quickly changed into one of Kyle’s old shirts she liked to wear at night and went to bed, and for the first time in weeks, if not months, she fell into a peaceful slumber.
The rest of the week went by quickly and neither Max and Liz nor Kyle and Tess had the chance to spend much time together. Between school and work and the alien’s practice sessions that had been reintroduced after Max and Tess had returned from New York announcing Nicholas’ survival of the fire inferno, there simply wasn’t a lot of free time left to spend together.
Late on Friday night, technically already Saturday, when Tess was in bed, Kyle snuck out of the house to go over to Liz’s. He knew that she would still be awake since she never went to bed before 3 or 4 am, and he’d missed spending time with her in the past week. She was his best friend after all.
During the short walk to the Crashdown his thoughts wandered back to the first time he had met Liz…
Kyle was eight at that time and out fishing with his dad. But at that age he was more interested in roaming around the woods than in sitting around for hours waiting for a darn fish to finally bite.
While running through the woods, chasing shadows and imaginary friends, he suddenly heard a strange noise and went in that direction to investigate it. The next thing he knew was that he was lying flat on his face. Someone had attacked him from behind and knocked him down. And when he rolled onto his back he got the surprise of his life.
A small girl was standing over him in a fighting stance, clearly ready to attack once more if it was necessary. Kyle guessed her to be about his age, even though she was shorter than him, practically tiny, and her hair was shaved off. But she was strong, and that impressed Kyle. Nobody at school was stronger than he was, least of all a girl.
He stuck out his hand. “Hi. I’m Kyle,” he said. The girl didn’t say anything, nor did she take his hand. Kyle scrambled to his feet and kept on talking, ignoring the fact that the girl had yet to say something in return. There was just something about her that intrigued him, and so he simply grabbed her hand, dragging her along with him, telling her that he wanted to show her his favorite place in the woods.
At first she resisted, but then curiosity seemingly got the better of her and she let him pull her along. After a few minutes they reached their destination – a small clearing with a pond. Kyle went over to it with Liz following and showed her the reason why he liked it there so much – frogs. There were dozens of them, and Kyle started chasing them, trying to catch one. He was of course much to slow, but he figured that if he tried enough he’d succeed one day.
Needless to say that he was stunned when Liz caught one at her first try. She handed it to him with a small smile. “I’m Liz,” she told him.
* * * * *
After hours of playing with each other, catching more frogs, chasing each other around the woods and playing hide and seek – which Liz of course always won – Kyle suddenly heard his father’s voice calling for him. Liz stopped dead in her tracks, a look of panic crossing over her face.
“I’m here!” Kyle called out, causing the fear in Liz’s eyes to increase.
“You don’t have to be afraid,” he told her, “It’s just my dad.” But that obviously didn’t convince her since she turned around and began to run in the opposite direction.
“Liz!” Kyle called after her, but she didn’t stop, and so he chase after her and tackled her to the ground, not thinking of anything else he could do to keep her from running away.
Kyle was only eight years old, but even to him it was obvious that this girl didn’t have anybody who was taking care of her since her clothes were dirty and torn, and she looked like she could use a decent meal or two.
Liz shoved Kyle off with ease, but at that moment Kyle’s dad appeared in the clearing, and she froze. Kyle had never seen anybody looking as scared as Liz did in that moment. She had yet to move, to react in any way to the appearance of Kyle’s dad, and so Kyle got up off the floor and pulled Liz up too.
“Dad, this is Liz,” he said. “I don’t think that she has any parents. Can she come home with us?” he asked hopefully. Ever since his mom had left a few months ago he had been awfully lonely. Having a sibling would be great, even if Liz was a girl. But she was fun, not like the girls at school. Those were all yucky, and all they ever did was play with Barbies.
Kyle’s dad crouched down in front of Liz. “I’m Jim,” he said. “And you must be Liz. Is it true that you don’t have any parents? I’m the sheriff, and so I could help you. Find a nice family for you.”
Liz still didn’t say anything, she was trying to decide if she should trust Jim. Coming to the conclusion that it was too big a risk and that it was better for her to trust nobody, she turned and was about to run. But Kyle caught her eye, and she saw so much loneliness in them, it broke her heart. All the laughter and mirth she had seen in them the whole afternoon was gone and replaced by a sadness Liz had only ever seen in the eyes of her siblings.
As much as she wanted to just turn and run away, she just couldn’t be responsible for Kyle being so sad. And so she turned back to Jim and nodded, before taking Kyle’s hand and clinging to him tightly.
* * * * *
Jim took Liz home with him and Kyle. After taking a shower, putting on some of Kyle’s old clothes that were to small for him and eating her first warm meal in weeks, Liz and Kyle went to bed, both sleeping in Kyle’s bed since Liz refused to leave Kyle’s side.
It wasn’t till Jim went inside to check on them that he noticed Liz’s barcode. Till then she had been very careful to hide it from him, but now while she was sleeping she had no way of preventing him from seeing it.
And suddenly Jim understood everything. His father had been what you would call an UFO nut, and during his investigations of the incident with the weather balloon back in ’47 he had somehow found out about a secret government agency called Manticore that was trying to create a perfect soldier through genetic engineering that was capable of fighting and defeating the extra terrestrials.
Jim believed him about the secret government agency – he knew all too well that the government thought that certain aspects of military strategy were not something the public should know about – but the alien-part about it was of course crap.
His father had also told him about the barcodes on the necks of the genetic engineered soldiers that were used to keep track of them. And because of his position as the Sheriff of Roswell he knew that some kids with barcodes like that were being looked for that had supposedly escaped from an asylum for dificult children.
He had therefore counted two and two together and figured that some of these super soldiers had escaped and that Manticore was now looking for them. And after spending a few hours with Liz he knew that he would do anything to keep her safe from those people.
The next day, when Jim’s old high school buddy Jeff Parker called to tell him that he and his wife Nancy were coming back to Roswell to open a Café and that they were planning to adopt a child since they had found out that they couldn’t have one themselves, the perfect solution presented itself.
In the mean time Kyle had reached the ladder up to Liz’s balcony. He climbed up and wasn’t surprised to find Liz sitting in one of her lawn chairs, busy writing into her journal.
“Hey,” he said after giving her a kiss on the forehead and plopping down beside her.
Liz quickly finished her entry before she closed her journal and put it aside.
“Hey,” she replied smiling at him. “I was wondering when you’d come over again, it’s been a while.”
“Yeah well, you know, we lowly humans need this thing called sleep every night. Heard of that concept before?”
“Haha,” Liz said before studying him for a moment. “What’s up with you?,” she asked curiously. “You’re grinning like you just won in the lottery.”
Kyle hesitated for a moment before answering. He wasn't sure how to tell her, and so he just said it. “I kissed Tess,” he confessed.
“What?!” Liz said, totally stunned. “You kissed her?!” she asked, wanting to make sure that she had heard right.
“Mmh-hmm,” Kyle said nodding.
“And did she kiss you back?” Liz asked, eyes wide open, her mind racing with the possibilities of what this could mean. She knew that Kyle really liked Tess, and if Tess liked him back that might be the solution she had been looking for. It might make it possible to clear everything up.
Kyle tilted his head to the side thinking. “Well, it’s hard to say. Either that or she was just too surprised to react. Dad sort of interrupted us. He smashed his old Remington through the front door.”
“You don’t know if she kissed you back?” Liz asked exasperated. How can you not know if someone returned a kiss? “Wait a minute, his Remington? Oh no, tell me that he isn’t gonna start writing on his novel again,” Liz said, fear lacing her voice. She too had had the pleasure of getting a sneak preview, and she could only agree with Kyle – the story was horrible.
“I’m afraid so,” Kyle said, not knowing a way to break the news gently. “But we can always say that we don’t want to get previews because that would spoil reading the whole thing when it’s published,” he added, trying to make Liz feel a bit better about the whole thing.
“I guess,” Liz said, still not totally convinced. It was hard to say no to Jim since he was so enthusiastic about his story, especially since he was like a second father to Liz.
“So what’s up with you and Tess now?” Liz asked changing the subject to something nicer.
“I don’t know,” Kyle replied. “We hardly saw each other since that night, and we haven’t really talked much either, so I have absolutely no idea where we stand,” he explained sighing. The situation sucked. He had no idea how to act around Tess now.
“What about you?” he asked, wanting to think about something else. “How are you holding up?” He knew how hard things had been on her since the whole Future Max ordeal, but lately she and Max seemed to be getting along again.
“I’m good actually,” Liz said, a small smile playing over her lips. “Ever since Max came back from New York things have been getting better between us again. It’s almost like it was around this time last year, when we were just friends, and things were still so… easy.”
Kyle gave her a strange look. “Easy?”
“Well, relatively easy,” Liz said.
“Will you tell him the truth?” Kyle asked.
“I don’t know,” Liz said sighing. “I mean, I want to, I want to so badly, but at the same time I’m so scared. I mean, what if Future Max was right? What if the world will really end if Max and I get back together? Or even if Max just knows the truth? He was very insistent about his younger self not finding out about him, and there has to be a reason for that. But on the other hand, even Future Max can’t know what kind of consequences this will have on the future, and if it will really change something. What if it’s enough for the group to know that Tess is needed and has to stay here? What if I’m causing more harm than good? What if I’m just making things even worse? What if I can’t prevent the end of the world one way or another? I mean, Future Max was desperate, he probably wasn’t thinking straight. He just lost his family, and he’d try everything to get them back. But I could never forgive myself if something ever happened to either Michael or Isabel. I mean, how can I risk their lives? I don’t have the right to do that. And… I just don’t know what to do. No matter what decision I make, the consequences could be disastrous,” she finished.
Kyle listened to Liz silently without interrupting her, knowing that she had to get this all out of her system. He hated seeing Liz so confused and unhappy, and he wished he could do something to help her, but he didn’t know what the right decision was any more than she did and so the only thing he could do was be there for her.
When Liz was finished with her rant, tears started to gather in her eyes, and Kyle’s heart broke at the sight of it. He stood up and sat down beside her, pulling her into a hug, whispering words of comfort, wishing that this whole mess would be cleared up soon.
* * * * *
The next few days were as busy as the ones before, and so the group spent little time together, which was maybe not all bad since they could really use some time apart.
Things were still tense between Max and Isabel because of Isabel keeping secrets from him, even though Max had officially forgiven her, but it would take some time till the trust was rebuilt between them again.
Maria and Michael were still apart due to the episode with Courtney, especially since Michael refused to apologize since he didn’t see anything wrong in his doing because he had only done it to investigate Courtney, Maria however was convinced that that was only part of the reason and accused him of cheating.
Isabel and Alex were also just friends, even though this now seemed to be Alex’s decision as much as Isabel’s. He didn’t chase after her like a puppy in heat anymore, didn’t go out of his way to “coincidentally” run into her, didn’t push her to go out with him anymore. On the outside Isabel seemed to be fine with it, but if you looked closer you could see that that was just a façade and that she did indeed mind, especially when Alex started getting friendly with one of the girls from his computer science class, Kara.
Tess was withdrawn and hardly talked to anyone, even Max, Isabel and Michael. Especially Max actually.
The relationship between Maria and Liz was also frosty, due to Liz keeping secrets from her.
And Kyle seemed to be the bad guy in everybody’s eyes.
All in all not an ideal situation.
Kyle and Liz had tried to stay away from each other in public to not cause even more trouble by having people speculating about them being back together and so Kyle was all the more surprised when he found a message on his voice mail from Liz one morning asking him to meet her in the band room before school started, the sooner the better.
Her voice sounded strange - scared, shaky, like she had been crying, and her sentences had been jumbled, often not complete and generally not like Liz at all.
Kyle quickly got dressed and left the house as fast as he could, asking Tess if she could catch a ride with someone else.
When he arrived at the band room he found a very distraught Liz pacing up and down. She was pale, there were tear tracks on her cheeks and she looked scared out of her mind, which in return scared him. He had never seen Liz looking so afraid before.
“Oh my God, what happened?” Kyle asked rushing over to her, wanting to make sure that she wasn’t hurt.
Liz didn’t answer, she only stared at him, her lips trembling, like she was going to start to cry any second.
Kyle starred at Liz blankly for a few moments, needing time to process what she had just told him.
"You're what?!" he exclaimed.
"I...I..." Liz said before the sobs she had been trying to hold back broke free, making it impossible for her to repeat what she had just told him. Not that she wanted to. Saying it made it seem so real.
Kyle stood there completely dumbfounded. "Liz, that's impossible," he told her when he finally regained his ability to speak. This was ridiculous. Liz couldn't be pregnant. From what?
"I… I know," Liz replied, still sobbing.
Kyle stood there staring at her, not knowing what to think or do or say. "Are you sure?" he finally asked.
Liz could only nod, she was crying too hard to say anything.
Kyle was in shock. How the hell was this possible? Who was the father? When had it happened? And why hadn't Liz ever told him anything about this? They never kept secrets from each other. Never.
Had she gone into heat and slept with some random guy and was too embarrassed to tell him about it? He instantly felt guilty that he hadn't been there for her to prevent that.
But he pushed those questions and feelings aside for the moment, knowing that there where more important things to focus on right now - Liz.
The sight of her broke his heart. She was crying and shaking, and so he wrapped his arms around her tightly, pulling her into a hug, holding her close. He whispered soothing words of comfort into her ear, telling her that it would be okay, that she wasn't alone, that he'd always be there for her. All the while his mind was racing, trying to make sense of what she had just told him.
When she calmed down a bit he carefully picked up her shaking, trembling form and carried her out of the building to his car, glad that the school halls were still deserted and that nobody saw them. He needed to get her out of there, the band room was no place to discuss something like this. The last thing they needed right now was some busybody hearing them talking about it and telling the whole school, or even worse, the whole town.
Little did he know that there had actually been someone listening to every word they'd spoken.
~*~*~*~
Kyle drove Liz out to the desert. It was the one place where they were guaranteed to be alone, and where they would see anybody who was coming their way long before the person could hear what they were saying.
Liz was still crying, harder than ever, and so he just pulled her into his arms and held her. He had about a billion questions, but they could wait. Right now the only important thing was to get Liz to calm down, to reassure her that no matter what, he would be there for her every step of the way.
Kyle didn’t know how much time had passed when Liz finally calmed down a bit. There were still occasional muffled sobs coming from her and she was still shaking, but she could at least talk.
"Are you okay?" Kyle asked concerned, even though he knew that it was a stupid question. Liz was obviously not okay, nobody would be in that situation.
"Mmm-hmm," Liz replied nodding.
"Liz, I don't understand how you could be pregnant,” Kyle told her, trying to somehow make sense of this all. “I mean, who's the father?" he asked, deciding that he needed to approach this logically.
"I don't know," Liz whispered, her voice still shaky.
"You don't know?" Kyle asked surprised. This was getting weirder and weirder. "Well, when did it happen?"
"I don't know," Liz repeated.
"How can you not know that?" Kyle asked, more confused than ever. He had the distinctive feeling that he was missing out on an important fact here.
"I don't know how I got pregnant," Liz said, desperation evident in her voice. She was trying to explain what was going on, at least the small part she knew, but she couldn’t find the right words, couldn’t slow down her racing mind. Her thoughts and feelings were so jumbled, she was surprised that she could actually form somewhat coherent sentences.
"Isn't there just one way to get pregnant?" Kyle asked.
"Yes… no… I mean... I don't know. I didn't sleep with anybody, Kyle. Or at least I don't remember it. I don't know. I just don’t know," Liz said, starting to cry again.
Kyle just sat there starring at her trying to process what Liz had just told him. She hadn't slept with anyone? Or she at least couldn't remember? Huh?
"What do you mean, at least you can't remember?" he asked.
"I've been having memory lapses," Liz admitted, forcing herself to calm down, at least enough to be able to talk. Crying wasn't going to get her anywhere. She needed to be rational now, have her senses together, think, come up with an explanation. This uncertainty was worse than anything else. She always had explanations for everything, always understood everything. But this… this was just so incomprehensible. How was it possible?
"I didn't tell you because I didn't want to worry you," she continued, staring at her hands. They were still trembling. She clenched them together, trying to get them to stop shaking. "And it was only one time. Last week I think. I closed up the Crashdown and then went to the back to go upstairs, and the next thing I remember is waking up in my bed the next morning."
"So that was the only time?" Kyle asked, trying once again to make sense of what Liz was telling him and come up with a logical explanation. But the more he heard the surer he was that there was no logical explanation.
Liz nodded.
"Was there anything else weird about that, besides the obvious?" Kyle asked.
"I felt really strange when I woke up," Liz told him, thinking back to that morning. She had pushed it to the back of her mind since that day had turned out so great. "I was totally exhausted. Everything hurt. And I got sick."
"But you don't know what happened?" Kyle asked.
"No," Liz said, her voice breaking. She was so scared.
"Okay, so how do you know that you're pregnant?" Kyle asked, trying to be the rational one here, since Liz obviously couldn't right now.
"I took a test," Liz replied sniffing. "Five actually."
"I wanted to be sure," she added when Kyle gave her a strange look.
"So you just went to the store and bought yourself some pregnancy tests, just like that, even though you had no reason to believe that you could be pregnant?" Kyle asked. This wasn't making any sense.
"I didn't exactly buy them," Liz admitted.
"You stole them?" Kyle asked surprised. Liz never used her abilities to do anything that was morally wrong or illegal in any way.
"It's a small town," Liz explained. "News travels fast. I didn't want people suspecting anything."
"But why did you get them in the first place?"
Liz hesitated before replying. This part almost scared her almost as much as the rest. "I got a vision," she admitted.
"A vision?" Kyle asked, not understanding. "What do you mean a vision?"
"When I was getting ready for bed last night I touched the basin and I suddenly saw myself taking a pregnancy test that came out positive. Like I was seeing into the future," she told Kyle.
"The future?" Kyle asked. "You can see into the future?"
"I don't know," Liz said. "It just felt like that. And I got scared that it could be true, even though I couldn't explain it, and so I went and got myself some pregnancy tests. It’s like… I just knew that it was true somehow."
"And they all came out positive?" Kyle asked.
Liz nodded, tears welling up in her eyes again.
“You know, the tests aren’t really much proof,” Kyle told her, trying to find some kind of hope they could cling to. “I mean, they’re not completely accurate, and we don’t know how your transgenic status could influence the outcome of them. Maybe you’re not really pregnant after all,” Kyle said.
Liz shook her head. “It’s not just the tests Kyle. I don’t know why, but I just know that it’s true. I already knew before I even took the tests. I just needed some kind of scientific proof. And even if the tests might not be completely accurate, I know that they are in my case. I just know,” she said, tears once again streaming down her face.
Kyle’s heart sank, and once again broke. For a moment hope had flickered up inside him, but if Liz was sure he trusted her judgement.
He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into a hug, trying once again to somehow make sense of it all. Liz was pregnant, just like that? He didn't understand it, couldn't explain it, but he knew that at the moment there was something more important than finding out how this had happened. He could only imagine how she must be feeling right now, how scared she must be, not to mention the consequences this would have on her life. It would change everything for her.
He knew what that there was nothing he could do, nothing he could say, to make it better for her, and so he just held her, rubbing soothing circles over her back, rocking her back and forth, whispering words of comfort.
They sat like that for hours, drawing comfort and strength from each other's presence. Both were lost in thoughts of their own, trying to let it all sink in, trying to come up with a logical explanation, trying to figure out how this could ever be possible in the first place.
But they came up with nothing. It was impossible, and yet it had happened. All they could do now was try and deal with it as best as they could.
