Thirty minutes later…..well. they were at it again. It would never be clear just who made that decision.
What started as languid kisses and gentle caresses in the post orgasmic cuddling period had, over about twenty-five minutes, morphed into first foreplay and then another coupling. But this differed in a number of ways from the time before.
For Tess, there was no terror, no flashes of the horrors she had experienced with Nasedo, no fear at all as she joined herself with Kyle. Yes, those things would return, the intrusive thoughts, the nightmares, but even then there would be a change. While the terror of the act would still haunt her, her self-contempt would not. Because she was loved by Kyle Valenti, she knew that with certainty, and anyone who could be loved by someone so wonderful….well that person couldn’t be the empty shell of a person that Nasedo had believed her to be. Yes, she would continue to fear Nasedo, but while she feared him she also knew, the problem was Nasedo, not the worthlessness of Tess.
And while Kyle would still not forgive himself entirely for how he had treated her that first time…..the adoration in the eyes and joy in the face of Tess left no room for doubt in the mind of Kyle Valenti that Tess’s love for him was real and that her body welcomed his presence within it.
Both had healed, at least to a degree, through their mutual love. And as they continued their coupling, as the pleasure exploded within them once again, the connection flickered open again and again. For mere milliseconds, but in that time they experienced not just their own release of passion, but the feelings of the other. And hidden in this connection, hidden in the pleasure that rippled through their bodies, their two souls strove to form an eternal bond between them.
The final time, actually, was Tess’s idea. Kyle was hesitant….”Tess….this was your first time and…” and his heart stopped as he realized the horror that would remind her of. But there had been healing for Tess, even in that. She put her finger to his lips before the apology could come, and said with a tender smile, “It was my first time, Kyle……the first time anyone has ever made love to me…” ‘and the first time in two lifetimes,’ she thought, ‘that I have ever been loved.’
He kissed her softly, tenderly, still not forgetting the brutality of their first coupling. “But I am afraid you’ll be….well,.....sore.”
It seemed funny to Tess that she could actually still blush for Kyle, given what they had just gone through, but she did slightly as she looked up at him with a wry smile.
“I will probably..” she said, before the smile turned to a far-off look, still a smile but somehow with a bit of sorrow in it as well as she continued, “…but we never know how much time destiny may give us, or what ways it may take us. All we know is that we have the here and now….this moment, and this moment …I need you again, Kyle.”
And the truth is, Kyle never would be mindwarped by Tess again, not that there was much of anything that he’d have denied her anyway, ….and certainly not this. Except only seconds after he’d entered her again, she said, “Yes Kyle, yes….I love the rhythm when we move together…” and an alarm bell suddenly went off in the mind of Kyle Valenti.
Tess was surprised by the abrupt withdrawal, and even more surprised at the sudden loneliness the loss of his warmth within her caused. The girl who two hours ago had been horrified at the mere thought…..had become the woman who wanted and needed with total passion. He had gotten up, his knees still between hers but shock on his face.
“Kyle, what’s wrong?”
“Rhythm..”
“W-What??”
“Rhythm. You aren’t on the pill….I didn’t use protection……uh….do you know where you are in your cycle?”
‘Oh my!?’ she thought. First she’d been drunk, then they both had forgotten. But then logic …or at least rationalization, won out over blind fear.
“Kyle…..we’ve done this three times in the last couple hours……whatever’s going to happen….well….it’s going to happen. I don’t think it’s any more or less likely to happen if we do it just one more time….”
And even if those weren’t exactly the words Kyle Valenti wanted to hear…..well, they were close enough. Before he returned to his ‘duties’ he thought only briefly, and that thought was this..
‘Beautiful and passionate and bright, too. My God, Valenti, you really don’t deserve her……”
All of which was likely true, but nonetheless, Tess had made her choice, and her choice was Kyle.
Dominoes falling..... (M/L) Mature 9/26/06 complete
Moderators: Anniepoo98, Rowedog, ISLANDGIRL5, Itzstacie, truelovepooh, FSU/MSW-94, Forum Moderators
12:30 AM, Anthony’s Inn, Dexter New Mexico, Room 204
Tess was making a memory. That’s what she called it. All it really involved was to think really really hard about what was happening at the time, and do her best to remember it forever. She did this anytime something struck her as particularly beautiful, so beautiful she wanted to remember it for all time. This hadn’t come up a whole lot living with Nasedo, so she was doing her best to memorize every single thing going on right now.
And that consisted of looking up at the ceiling, listening to Kyle sleeping peacefully beside her, and feeling his body against the side of hers as she lay next to him. And she was burning that memory into her brain for all eternity.
She had once read a letter to an advice columnist in a newspaper. The woman was complaining that her husband would fall asleep after making love to her, and she thought that was insensitive. ‘Now that was one insensitive bitch,’ Tess thought to herself. ‘How could she feel like that?’
She looked over to her slumbering bedpartner. ‘What a darling….’ Maybe she shouldn’t have pushed him for that third time. Tess didn’t count the first mind-warping. She still hadn’t forgiven herself for doing that.
‘All tuckered out, just trying to please me…. Well, he seemed to enjoy it too.’ This was a great memory, the best of her life. And already she was dreading the alarm going off, in only a half hour.
She really didn’t need to get home, Nasedo wouldn’t be back from California until the day after Thanksgiving. But Kyle had told his father he’d be home by midnight, and already called and gotten one extension to 2AM, claiming the movie was a ‘double feature,’ ‘More like a hat-trick,’ thought Tess starting to blush again.
But the insensitive bitch bothered Tess. ‘How could she think that way?’ Tess would give anything to have Kyle fall asleep next to her every night for an eternity….but she wouldn’t have it. In fact, in three days she would have to give him up forever. She didn’t like it, but it was the only conclusion she could reach.
Nasedo would kill Kyle, if he found out about tonight. Not because he would be angry at Kyle, although in truth he was angry at pretty much all humans. But simply to punish Tess, punish her for not devoting the time to the pursuit of the child of Max Evans.
Or he might do it, she thought, just to see the pain in her eyes when she saw him die. That was why he had killed the pregnant woman in the car back in the seventies. He laughed about it…..the pain in the man’s eyes when he saw her dead. Her husband hadn’t even known she was pregnant…but Nasedo had. He could sense the two different auras of the lifeforces in her body. He had gone back to see it, when the man was told the autopsy report…told he had lost a child as well as a mate. Nasedo got off on grief….other people’s grief.
So in three days it would be all over, and Tess would have to get back to the business of getting a royal heir for Kivar, to bail him out of his deteriorating political situation.
Nasedo would frequently talk about politics in Antar, how it gave him leverage over Kivar. It had all started before his takeover. Politics on Antar made no sense to Tess. There was a hereditary class of Royals, and a much larger class of commoners. The commoners resented the Royals their wealth and privilege, but still wanted them to run the place. The Royals lead kind of wasted lives of politically arranged loveless unions, to preserve the monarchy. The queen whose genetic material made up part of Tess had actually been her husband’s cousin.
Kivar had played upon the resentment of the commoners, told them that he could run the place and give them much of the wealth and privilege of the Royals. It was rather classic class-warfare strategy, and once the commoners withdrew their support from the king, Kivar and his Skin army had taken over, brutally suppressing both commoners and Royalists.
And according to Nasedo, Zan had been a passionless king, as passive politically as he had been as a husband. No, this wasn’t about old marital resentments, Nasedo said that Zan had treated his queen reasonably well, as Royal marriages went. Even when the politics had changed, Zan had honored his agreements he made when he accepted her as a bride.
But like most Antarean Royals, he had little interest in confronting Kivar. He compromised, to avoid war, then compromised upon the compromise…..then compromised upon that, when Kivar continued to fight despite his previous agreements. By the time the passionless young king realized that fight he must, ….the commoners had deserted him, Kivar had outflanked him, and the Royal Four had died.
The Foursome in the pods had been hybridized, from the DNA of the dead Royal Four and that of Earthlings abducted and examined years before. They had been sent to Earth to be hidden by Royalists, in the hope that the Monarchy might be re-established. They had been created in the same factory where Nasedo had been created. The idea was to send them to Earth to hide, to grow, to learn to use their powers, and to return to free Antar from Kivar.
And Kivar was growing weaker, that’s why he needed the Royal Heir. As Regent, he could continue to rule in the name of the child, boosting his support with Royals he could buy and commoners who still wanted someone else…some royalty…to rule them.
And as far as Tess was concerned, a plague on all their houses.
Her interest wasn’t in the pampered princes of the Royalists, who wanted their privileges, or even the commoners who wanted prosperity, but wanted someone else to tell them how to get it. And it certainly wasn’t Kivar. Her only interest was…Kyle.
Despite eleven years of being terrified of him, despite the horror she still felt about what he had done, she had actually thought of how he might be killed. The problem was, he couldn’t be. Well, that might not be right, maybe he could. He had said as much….something about tying up loose ends, when he had killed the Native American elder. Tess thought the shaman may have known something about how he could be killed, or at least disabled. But if he had, that knowledge had died with him, when Nasedo put his hand on him and heated his body to 45 degrees Centigrade. That was, Nasedo had told her incessantly, the most power-efficient way to kill.
The artificial life-form called Nasedo was all about power. It didn’t matter if you called him Protector, or Assassin. They were in fact the very same model, just differing in their mental programming. And the virus Kivar’s supporters had clandestinely planted in Nasedo 70 years ago, had scrambled in mental programming.
He was a rogue now, interested only in himself and the cruelties he could inflict upon people for his amusement. And it wasn’t even his strength. Tess’s powers were less than those of Nasedo, but not tremendously so. It was his endurance. His model was specialized to generate and store energy, at the expense of many other functions…such as reproduction.
Tess knew that even if all four of the pod people attacked him, even if the others had studied and practiced the use of their powers as she had, rather than spending a decade hiding them, well even four against one….it wouldn’t be enough.
It wouldn’t be enough because their power wouldn’t match his, it wouldn’t be enough because he had a power they didn’t have, the ability to detect powers and weapons used against him and fire back quickly at the source of the threat, and it wouldn’t be enough because…when ultimately the Four were all out of energy, he’d recharge faster than they would.
Oh, if they had the ability to drain his power to a critical level, his body would shut down, to preserve him until he could be recharged with the stones. Somehow Riverdog must have done that, and used the stones to revive him. Over the years she had gotten that much out of him. But Tess didn’t know how to drain those powers anyway other than fighting him, and it was a fight they would all lose.
So she’d come up with The Plan, and The Plan was to protect Kyle.
It was strange, really, ironic in fact, that all the things that Nasedo had done to her throughout her life, the brutality, the rape, the degradation…he’d done all those things to motivate her, just for this one task. And she couldn’t do it. Not for Nasedo, not despite what he’d done to her, but because of what he’d done to her. But once again, she’d do things to keep Kyle safe, that she would have never done for herself. She could mate with Max now, not because Kyle had showed her it was pleasant, it STILL wouldn’t be pleasant for Tess to let Max touch her. But she’d endure it……for Kyle.
And she had to get Nasedo away from Roswell, off the planet, to protect him, and the only way was to go through with The Plan. Kivar would get his cursed Royal Heir, Nasedo would get his trip back to Antar, and Tess would get….a lifetime of loneliness, her only solace knowing that Kyle was safe….and the memories of the three days she would have with him.
And as terrible as her life had been, up until five hours ago, that really wasn’t all that bad. But that’s why she resented that woman griping about her sleeping husband. Tess would give anything to be that woman, if it could be Kyle beside her. But that wasn’t going to happen. That’s why she had the plan.
Once properly motivated, it really hadn’t taken Tess long to figure out a way past the mindwarping problems, and her love for Kyle had motivated her.
Elizabeth Parker wasn’t the problem…..she was the solution. She didn’t need to mindwarp Max….didn’t need to seduce him either. All she needed was Liz.
The Plan was simple, and virtually foolproof. She’d kidnap Liz…..that’d be easy enough. Liz had no powers.
Eastern New Mexico had thousands of old played out mines, small caves, and crevices in cliffs. She’d put Liz in one, then seal it tightly with molecular manipulation. Then she’d simply go to Max and tell him. Get me pregnant and I’ll leave, and phone you Liz’s location. If you don’t….well, I’m not too sure how long the water will last….if the air doesn’t give out first.
Oh, he might be upset…might even beat her around a little. He couldn’t be as bad as Nasedo. And eventually he’d do it. She’d endure it….for Kyle. Heck, she didn’t even care if he enjoyed it…not that she would.
She wasn’t mad at Max….or Liz either. Maybe it was his earthling DNA, maybe somehow Liz just inspired a passion in him that Zan had never had. She didn’t care if they were happy together, hell, she'd be happy for them….she wished it could be like that for her and Kyle.
And unlike what Nasedo would do, she’d actually give him the right coordinates once he’d done what had to be done. Sure, maybe Kivar would consolidate his power with the Heir, maybe he’d turn his Skins lose on Earth in ten or fifteen years, and maybe hunt them down. Still, they’d have those years together. They’d have much more than the three days she’d have with Kyle.
But the bottom line was….Kyle would be safe…Nasedo would never kill him, and by the time the invasion of Earth came, he’d be lost in a crowd of 6 billion other Earthlings who would become Kivar’s subjects. And it wouldn’t be all that bad.
Kyle …Kyle was special. When Tess left he’d eventually move on…..find someone to make him happy. And Tess, well…she’d always have her memories, like the one she was making now.
Nobody on any of the other planets would ever understand why Earth women were so self-sacrificing for their men, so willing to martyr themselves….to give up their own happiness to insure the safety of the man they loved. Earth men themselves don’t understand, but then….they know they aren’t worth it.
But that was The Plan, and Tess was determined to do it, to do for the sake of Kyle that which she could have never brought herself to do for Tess.
And it was a good plan, a plan that would change forever the destiny of two worlds, a plan that would assure that Tess’s beloved Kyle would never be threatened by Nasedo.
In just a few minutes. motivated by love, Tess had come up with a way to control destiny, something she could have never done if her only motivation had remained the welfare of Tess Harding.
And there the story might have ended, except for one thing. Tess’s words had been prophetic when she said, ‘we never know how much time destiny may give us, or what ways it may take us.’ Destiny indeed sometimes had its own plans.
Right now Tess was making memories, that would last a lifetime. In a half hour the alarm would go off and Kyle and Tess would get up, and he would take her home to an empty house, kiss her passionately and wish he could stay, but promise instead to take her to the Crashdown for a decorating party in the morning, with a follow-on date to yet another motel. She would go to bed, knowing this was the most wonderful night of her young and not terribly happy life. But she wouldn’t sleep. She’d just look at the ceiling, thinking of Kyle, of the passion they had shared, and her determination to keep him safe. And she would decide that Nasedo could never, ever know of her love for him.
And at 4 AM she would feel the aura burst forth as the embryo implanted itself in her uterus, the embryo formed from the egg now floating in her left Fallopian tube that was right now, in its own microscopic way, having its own joining with Kyle Valenti.
Tess was making a memory. That’s what she called it. All it really involved was to think really really hard about what was happening at the time, and do her best to remember it forever. She did this anytime something struck her as particularly beautiful, so beautiful she wanted to remember it for all time. This hadn’t come up a whole lot living with Nasedo, so she was doing her best to memorize every single thing going on right now.
And that consisted of looking up at the ceiling, listening to Kyle sleeping peacefully beside her, and feeling his body against the side of hers as she lay next to him. And she was burning that memory into her brain for all eternity.
She had once read a letter to an advice columnist in a newspaper. The woman was complaining that her husband would fall asleep after making love to her, and she thought that was insensitive. ‘Now that was one insensitive bitch,’ Tess thought to herself. ‘How could she feel like that?’
She looked over to her slumbering bedpartner. ‘What a darling….’ Maybe she shouldn’t have pushed him for that third time. Tess didn’t count the first mind-warping. She still hadn’t forgiven herself for doing that.
‘All tuckered out, just trying to please me…. Well, he seemed to enjoy it too.’ This was a great memory, the best of her life. And already she was dreading the alarm going off, in only a half hour.
She really didn’t need to get home, Nasedo wouldn’t be back from California until the day after Thanksgiving. But Kyle had told his father he’d be home by midnight, and already called and gotten one extension to 2AM, claiming the movie was a ‘double feature,’ ‘More like a hat-trick,’ thought Tess starting to blush again.
But the insensitive bitch bothered Tess. ‘How could she think that way?’ Tess would give anything to have Kyle fall asleep next to her every night for an eternity….but she wouldn’t have it. In fact, in three days she would have to give him up forever. She didn’t like it, but it was the only conclusion she could reach.
Nasedo would kill Kyle, if he found out about tonight. Not because he would be angry at Kyle, although in truth he was angry at pretty much all humans. But simply to punish Tess, punish her for not devoting the time to the pursuit of the child of Max Evans.
Or he might do it, she thought, just to see the pain in her eyes when she saw him die. That was why he had killed the pregnant woman in the car back in the seventies. He laughed about it…..the pain in the man’s eyes when he saw her dead. Her husband hadn’t even known she was pregnant…but Nasedo had. He could sense the two different auras of the lifeforces in her body. He had gone back to see it, when the man was told the autopsy report…told he had lost a child as well as a mate. Nasedo got off on grief….other people’s grief.
So in three days it would be all over, and Tess would have to get back to the business of getting a royal heir for Kivar, to bail him out of his deteriorating political situation.
Nasedo would frequently talk about politics in Antar, how it gave him leverage over Kivar. It had all started before his takeover. Politics on Antar made no sense to Tess. There was a hereditary class of Royals, and a much larger class of commoners. The commoners resented the Royals their wealth and privilege, but still wanted them to run the place. The Royals lead kind of wasted lives of politically arranged loveless unions, to preserve the monarchy. The queen whose genetic material made up part of Tess had actually been her husband’s cousin.
Kivar had played upon the resentment of the commoners, told them that he could run the place and give them much of the wealth and privilege of the Royals. It was rather classic class-warfare strategy, and once the commoners withdrew their support from the king, Kivar and his Skin army had taken over, brutally suppressing both commoners and Royalists.
And according to Nasedo, Zan had been a passionless king, as passive politically as he had been as a husband. No, this wasn’t about old marital resentments, Nasedo said that Zan had treated his queen reasonably well, as Royal marriages went. Even when the politics had changed, Zan had honored his agreements he made when he accepted her as a bride.
But like most Antarean Royals, he had little interest in confronting Kivar. He compromised, to avoid war, then compromised upon the compromise…..then compromised upon that, when Kivar continued to fight despite his previous agreements. By the time the passionless young king realized that fight he must, ….the commoners had deserted him, Kivar had outflanked him, and the Royal Four had died.
The Foursome in the pods had been hybridized, from the DNA of the dead Royal Four and that of Earthlings abducted and examined years before. They had been sent to Earth to be hidden by Royalists, in the hope that the Monarchy might be re-established. They had been created in the same factory where Nasedo had been created. The idea was to send them to Earth to hide, to grow, to learn to use their powers, and to return to free Antar from Kivar.
And Kivar was growing weaker, that’s why he needed the Royal Heir. As Regent, he could continue to rule in the name of the child, boosting his support with Royals he could buy and commoners who still wanted someone else…some royalty…to rule them.
And as far as Tess was concerned, a plague on all their houses.
Her interest wasn’t in the pampered princes of the Royalists, who wanted their privileges, or even the commoners who wanted prosperity, but wanted someone else to tell them how to get it. And it certainly wasn’t Kivar. Her only interest was…Kyle.
Despite eleven years of being terrified of him, despite the horror she still felt about what he had done, she had actually thought of how he might be killed. The problem was, he couldn’t be. Well, that might not be right, maybe he could. He had said as much….something about tying up loose ends, when he had killed the Native American elder. Tess thought the shaman may have known something about how he could be killed, or at least disabled. But if he had, that knowledge had died with him, when Nasedo put his hand on him and heated his body to 45 degrees Centigrade. That was, Nasedo had told her incessantly, the most power-efficient way to kill.
The artificial life-form called Nasedo was all about power. It didn’t matter if you called him Protector, or Assassin. They were in fact the very same model, just differing in their mental programming. And the virus Kivar’s supporters had clandestinely planted in Nasedo 70 years ago, had scrambled in mental programming.
He was a rogue now, interested only in himself and the cruelties he could inflict upon people for his amusement. And it wasn’t even his strength. Tess’s powers were less than those of Nasedo, but not tremendously so. It was his endurance. His model was specialized to generate and store energy, at the expense of many other functions…such as reproduction.
Tess knew that even if all four of the pod people attacked him, even if the others had studied and practiced the use of their powers as she had, rather than spending a decade hiding them, well even four against one….it wouldn’t be enough.
It wouldn’t be enough because their power wouldn’t match his, it wouldn’t be enough because he had a power they didn’t have, the ability to detect powers and weapons used against him and fire back quickly at the source of the threat, and it wouldn’t be enough because…when ultimately the Four were all out of energy, he’d recharge faster than they would.
Oh, if they had the ability to drain his power to a critical level, his body would shut down, to preserve him until he could be recharged with the stones. Somehow Riverdog must have done that, and used the stones to revive him. Over the years she had gotten that much out of him. But Tess didn’t know how to drain those powers anyway other than fighting him, and it was a fight they would all lose.
So she’d come up with The Plan, and The Plan was to protect Kyle.
It was strange, really, ironic in fact, that all the things that Nasedo had done to her throughout her life, the brutality, the rape, the degradation…he’d done all those things to motivate her, just for this one task. And she couldn’t do it. Not for Nasedo, not despite what he’d done to her, but because of what he’d done to her. But once again, she’d do things to keep Kyle safe, that she would have never done for herself. She could mate with Max now, not because Kyle had showed her it was pleasant, it STILL wouldn’t be pleasant for Tess to let Max touch her. But she’d endure it……for Kyle.
And she had to get Nasedo away from Roswell, off the planet, to protect him, and the only way was to go through with The Plan. Kivar would get his cursed Royal Heir, Nasedo would get his trip back to Antar, and Tess would get….a lifetime of loneliness, her only solace knowing that Kyle was safe….and the memories of the three days she would have with him.
And as terrible as her life had been, up until five hours ago, that really wasn’t all that bad. But that’s why she resented that woman griping about her sleeping husband. Tess would give anything to be that woman, if it could be Kyle beside her. But that wasn’t going to happen. That’s why she had the plan.
Once properly motivated, it really hadn’t taken Tess long to figure out a way past the mindwarping problems, and her love for Kyle had motivated her.
Elizabeth Parker wasn’t the problem…..she was the solution. She didn’t need to mindwarp Max….didn’t need to seduce him either. All she needed was Liz.
The Plan was simple, and virtually foolproof. She’d kidnap Liz…..that’d be easy enough. Liz had no powers.
Eastern New Mexico had thousands of old played out mines, small caves, and crevices in cliffs. She’d put Liz in one, then seal it tightly with molecular manipulation. Then she’d simply go to Max and tell him. Get me pregnant and I’ll leave, and phone you Liz’s location. If you don’t….well, I’m not too sure how long the water will last….if the air doesn’t give out first.
Oh, he might be upset…might even beat her around a little. He couldn’t be as bad as Nasedo. And eventually he’d do it. She’d endure it….for Kyle. Heck, she didn’t even care if he enjoyed it…not that she would.
She wasn’t mad at Max….or Liz either. Maybe it was his earthling DNA, maybe somehow Liz just inspired a passion in him that Zan had never had. She didn’t care if they were happy together, hell, she'd be happy for them….she wished it could be like that for her and Kyle.
And unlike what Nasedo would do, she’d actually give him the right coordinates once he’d done what had to be done. Sure, maybe Kivar would consolidate his power with the Heir, maybe he’d turn his Skins lose on Earth in ten or fifteen years, and maybe hunt them down. Still, they’d have those years together. They’d have much more than the three days she’d have with Kyle.
But the bottom line was….Kyle would be safe…Nasedo would never kill him, and by the time the invasion of Earth came, he’d be lost in a crowd of 6 billion other Earthlings who would become Kivar’s subjects. And it wouldn’t be all that bad.
Kyle …Kyle was special. When Tess left he’d eventually move on…..find someone to make him happy. And Tess, well…she’d always have her memories, like the one she was making now.
Nobody on any of the other planets would ever understand why Earth women were so self-sacrificing for their men, so willing to martyr themselves….to give up their own happiness to insure the safety of the man they loved. Earth men themselves don’t understand, but then….they know they aren’t worth it.
But that was The Plan, and Tess was determined to do it, to do for the sake of Kyle that which she could have never brought herself to do for Tess.
And it was a good plan, a plan that would change forever the destiny of two worlds, a plan that would assure that Tess’s beloved Kyle would never be threatened by Nasedo.
In just a few minutes. motivated by love, Tess had come up with a way to control destiny, something she could have never done if her only motivation had remained the welfare of Tess Harding.
And there the story might have ended, except for one thing. Tess’s words had been prophetic when she said, ‘we never know how much time destiny may give us, or what ways it may take us.’ Destiny indeed sometimes had its own plans.
Right now Tess was making memories, that would last a lifetime. In a half hour the alarm would go off and Kyle and Tess would get up, and he would take her home to an empty house, kiss her passionately and wish he could stay, but promise instead to take her to the Crashdown for a decorating party in the morning, with a follow-on date to yet another motel. She would go to bed, knowing this was the most wonderful night of her young and not terribly happy life. But she wouldn’t sleep. She’d just look at the ceiling, thinking of Kyle, of the passion they had shared, and her determination to keep him safe. And she would decide that Nasedo could never, ever know of her love for him.
And at 4 AM she would feel the aura burst forth as the embryo implanted itself in her uterus, the embryo formed from the egg now floating in her left Fallopian tube that was right now, in its own microscopic way, having its own joining with Kyle Valenti.
8:30 AM, Harding Residence, Roswell New Mexico.
Kyle rang the doorbell. He was, to tell the truth, a little tired. It had been almost 2AM before he had actually gotten to bed and then he hadn’t slept for more than about an hour all night. Most of the time he had just kept playing and replaying the memories of the best night of his life. No, not the first time…that was still kind of scary. But the other three. Wow! But more than that, far more than the memories of even that wonderful night, had been the dreams of the days and nights to come. Perhaps something like this happened to someone every day, Kyle didn’t know. But it had damned sure never happened to Kyle Valenti before, and he’d lain awake all night thinking about it.
His anxiety started as soon as she opened the door. Tess had a scared…sort of tentative look on her face and was chewing on her bottom lip nervously. When she ushered him in to the kitchen and he found she had cooked breakfast for him, his nervousness started to grow.
‘Why do I feel I’m about to get dumped?’
“Kyle, we need to talk..”
“Yes, Tess…?”
“Yesterday I hurt you because I was insensitive and stupid and ….drunk.”
“Yes, Tess….?”
“Today I’m going to have to hurt you because I don’t have any other choice…”
Kyle rang the doorbell. He was, to tell the truth, a little tired. It had been almost 2AM before he had actually gotten to bed and then he hadn’t slept for more than about an hour all night. Most of the time he had just kept playing and replaying the memories of the best night of his life. No, not the first time…that was still kind of scary. But the other three. Wow! But more than that, far more than the memories of even that wonderful night, had been the dreams of the days and nights to come. Perhaps something like this happened to someone every day, Kyle didn’t know. But it had damned sure never happened to Kyle Valenti before, and he’d lain awake all night thinking about it.
His anxiety started as soon as she opened the door. Tess had a scared…sort of tentative look on her face and was chewing on her bottom lip nervously. When she ushered him in to the kitchen and he found she had cooked breakfast for him, his nervousness started to grow.
‘Why do I feel I’m about to get dumped?’
“Kyle, we need to talk..”
“Yes, Tess…?”
“Yesterday I hurt you because I was insensitive and stupid and ….drunk.”
“Yes, Tess….?”
“Today I’m going to have to hurt you because I don’t have any other choice…”
"What do you mean you want me to take you to the airport in El Paso?" Kyle asked.
Being pregnant changes everything. Ask any woman who has ever borne a child. It changes your whole world...or if you are Tess, your whole universe. Oh, she was bright enough....educated enough. She knew that the embryo at this point was only a few hundreds of cells, indistinguishable to the microscope from an embryo of dog...or even a bird. But it didn't matter. Being pregnant had changed everything.
What she knew had ceased to matter. What she felt and dreamed, did. And for the last four hours that hasn't been a little bit of tissue, alive but not even a human being legally...and perhaps since it was Tess's child too, it really could never be considered totally human. But what she felt....well, she felt she carried within her a very small Kyle Valenti, or perhaps a very small little girl with his features. And what she dreamed was carrying that pregnancy to term, bringing that part of him and her safely into the world, maybe even getting to suckle it at her breast a time or two, before she must give it up. Before she'd return to give it to Kyle...to ask him to find a good home for it....because he was the only one she'd ever trust to do that...the only one in the universe.
She had thought of running from him a thousand times....probably more. And it always came down to the same thing. Nasedo would find her. The creature didn't sleep....really didn't even NEED to eat, and had only one over-riding desire, to get back to Antar. He would find her, and the punishment would be terrible...if he didn't just kill her. And that's why she'd never seriously considered running away. But everything had changed now. Because her goal was no longer to escape Nasedo forever....that would have never happened. Her goal was to escape Nasedo for nine months....nine months plus enough time to bring the child back to its father. That she could do.
Nasedo was scheduled to be in California until the day after Thanksgiving. She would have almost a two day headstart. She would buy a ticket to Los Angeles, board the plane, and then mindwarp the attendant to let her off the plane. She'd mindwarp her way onto a flight to Dallas-Fort Worth, then move randomly from major hub to major hub eastward until she was in Europe. She'd keep moving, not leave a trail. Oh, Nasedo was good, he'd eventually find her. But not in nine months, not unless something happened, unless she had a problem with the pregnancy. And he wouldn't even know....he wouldn't be looking for a pregnant woman.
Oh, she could do it alright, not forever, but for long enough. She could do it because Tess no longer cared about Tess, no longer thought of the consequences. All she thought about was their child.
"Kyle, I have to get away. I have to hide."
"But Tess...what about us? What about your father...he'll be so worried."
"He'd not my father, Kyle," she said the revulsion plain on her face. "He's never been my father. He just wants to use me. He's the one....the one that raped me when I was in the fifth grade."
And it had all changed for Kyle, too. No, he didn't know she was pregnant. It had changed when he had spent the night looking up at the ceiling, dreaming dreams of Kyle and Tess, Tess and Kyle. Not having sex, well...that too, probably. But of having a life with her...having the whole thing....marriage, a family.
But now, right now his goals were much more limited. Right now he only wanted to protect her, protect her from a man he now thought of as a monster except......he still didn't really know that Nasedo was precisely that.
Being pregnant changes everything. Ask any woman who has ever borne a child. It changes your whole world...or if you are Tess, your whole universe. Oh, she was bright enough....educated enough. She knew that the embryo at this point was only a few hundreds of cells, indistinguishable to the microscope from an embryo of dog...or even a bird. But it didn't matter. Being pregnant had changed everything.
What she knew had ceased to matter. What she felt and dreamed, did. And for the last four hours that hasn't been a little bit of tissue, alive but not even a human being legally...and perhaps since it was Tess's child too, it really could never be considered totally human. But what she felt....well, she felt she carried within her a very small Kyle Valenti, or perhaps a very small little girl with his features. And what she dreamed was carrying that pregnancy to term, bringing that part of him and her safely into the world, maybe even getting to suckle it at her breast a time or two, before she must give it up. Before she'd return to give it to Kyle...to ask him to find a good home for it....because he was the only one she'd ever trust to do that...the only one in the universe.
She had thought of running from him a thousand times....probably more. And it always came down to the same thing. Nasedo would find her. The creature didn't sleep....really didn't even NEED to eat, and had only one over-riding desire, to get back to Antar. He would find her, and the punishment would be terrible...if he didn't just kill her. And that's why she'd never seriously considered running away. But everything had changed now. Because her goal was no longer to escape Nasedo forever....that would have never happened. Her goal was to escape Nasedo for nine months....nine months plus enough time to bring the child back to its father. That she could do.
Nasedo was scheduled to be in California until the day after Thanksgiving. She would have almost a two day headstart. She would buy a ticket to Los Angeles, board the plane, and then mindwarp the attendant to let her off the plane. She'd mindwarp her way onto a flight to Dallas-Fort Worth, then move randomly from major hub to major hub eastward until she was in Europe. She'd keep moving, not leave a trail. Oh, Nasedo was good, he'd eventually find her. But not in nine months, not unless something happened, unless she had a problem with the pregnancy. And he wouldn't even know....he wouldn't be looking for a pregnant woman.
Oh, she could do it alright, not forever, but for long enough. She could do it because Tess no longer cared about Tess, no longer thought of the consequences. All she thought about was their child.
"Kyle, I have to get away. I have to hide."
"But Tess...what about us? What about your father...he'll be so worried."
"He'd not my father, Kyle," she said the revulsion plain on her face. "He's never been my father. He just wants to use me. He's the one....the one that raped me when I was in the fifth grade."
And it had all changed for Kyle, too. No, he didn't know she was pregnant. It had changed when he had spent the night looking up at the ceiling, dreaming dreams of Kyle and Tess, Tess and Kyle. Not having sex, well...that too, probably. But of having a life with her...having the whole thing....marriage, a family.
But now, right now his goals were much more limited. Right now he only wanted to protect her, protect her from a man he now thought of as a monster except......he still didn't really know that Nasedo was precisely that.
“Tess, this is crazy, he said. “My father is the Sheriff, he can protect you. And Tess….what about us? How can you leave?”
Kyle wasn’t ready for the tears that slowly trickled down her cheeks as she looked up at him. “Your father can’t protect me, Kyle. Not from him. And as far as us…..it wouldn’t have worked. We are too different….and always will be. I should have realized that…not ever let this happen.”
“So…it was all a lie….between us?”
“It was a lie for me, Kyle. Then suddenly…well,…it wasn’t a lie anymore. But I was never honest with you…not about what I really was….What I really am….”
“You told me about what he did, Tess. It doesn’t matter. It was your first time last night…mine too. The first time either of us made love.”
She leaned against him and buried her head in his chest, the tears falling freely now. “Not that, my darling…..not what happened to me…..what I am…..what he is.”
Kyle held her tightly to his chest, and planted soft kisses in her hair, his own tears starting to fall. “I know what you are, Tess. You’re the woman I love.”
He didn’t understand when she started sobbing, sobbing like her heart was broken. “How can you love me when I lied to you, Kyle? How can you ever trust me when I’ve kept such a secret from you?”
“When you love, you love, Tess. You don’t hold back. I don’t care what you didn’t tell me….what you lied to me about. I love you now….and you love me. That’s all that matters….”
“Kyle….I’m artificial. I’m not even really….human.”
“You’re…what??”
“I’m artificial, Kyle. I was created from the DNA of a woman who died over 70 years ago, and from the DNA of someone who was sampled by a scientific probe. I was artificially created as a hybrid between the two.”
Kyle picked her chin up and looked at her face with a big smile. “Tess, that’s totally ridiculous! No one on earth has the capability to do that.”
Her wide tearful eyes looked up at him as she slowly nodded her head. “Yet another thing I didn’t tell you about….," said the young blonde as she put up her palm. It glowed gold briefly and Kyle was propelled firmly back onto the couch behind him.
“Tess? Maybe we better both sit down and talk…..”
Kyle wasn’t ready for the tears that slowly trickled down her cheeks as she looked up at him. “Your father can’t protect me, Kyle. Not from him. And as far as us…..it wouldn’t have worked. We are too different….and always will be. I should have realized that…not ever let this happen.”
“So…it was all a lie….between us?”
“It was a lie for me, Kyle. Then suddenly…well,…it wasn’t a lie anymore. But I was never honest with you…not about what I really was….What I really am….”
“You told me about what he did, Tess. It doesn’t matter. It was your first time last night…mine too. The first time either of us made love.”
She leaned against him and buried her head in his chest, the tears falling freely now. “Not that, my darling…..not what happened to me…..what I am…..what he is.”
Kyle held her tightly to his chest, and planted soft kisses in her hair, his own tears starting to fall. “I know what you are, Tess. You’re the woman I love.”
He didn’t understand when she started sobbing, sobbing like her heart was broken. “How can you love me when I lied to you, Kyle? How can you ever trust me when I’ve kept such a secret from you?”
“When you love, you love, Tess. You don’t hold back. I don’t care what you didn’t tell me….what you lied to me about. I love you now….and you love me. That’s all that matters….”
“Kyle….I’m artificial. I’m not even really….human.”
“You’re…what??”
“I’m artificial, Kyle. I was created from the DNA of a woman who died over 70 years ago, and from the DNA of someone who was sampled by a scientific probe. I was artificially created as a hybrid between the two.”
Kyle picked her chin up and looked at her face with a big smile. “Tess, that’s totally ridiculous! No one on earth has the capability to do that.”
Her wide tearful eyes looked up at him as she slowly nodded her head. “Yet another thing I didn’t tell you about….," said the young blonde as she put up her palm. It glowed gold briefly and Kyle was propelled firmly back onto the couch behind him.
“Tess? Maybe we better both sit down and talk…..”
“I had sex with an eleven year old? I’ll go to jail forever for that…..I’ll go to Hell for that.”
“Kyle! I’m NOT eleven, I just came out of the pod eleven years ago. Besides, I’m the one who started it…when I was drunk.”
“I got an eleven year old drunk and had sex with her. My own father will be arresting me for that…”
“I am NOT an eleven year old. I was in my pod in 1947, when the ship crashed. You could just as easily consider me a fifty year-old.” ‘Damn. It’s a good thing I’m not planning on telling Kyle about the pregnancy. That would REALLY freak him out.’
”Oh no, that one went to the Supreme Court. Life doesn’t begin at conception, it begins whenever you come out. That was eleven years ago for you…You weren’t old enough to consent, even if you had wanted to….and you certainly didn’t want to that first time. I raped an eleven year-old.”
“You did not, Kyle. I,…..I sort of raped you that first time, then well the second time it started because I knew how badly I hurt you but then………Did I remember to tell you how awesome the third and fourth times were. I think you fell asleep before I could on the last one… It was great……”
“Umm! It sure was. I love the feel of you against me, even now…….”
”Kyle, NO! We can’t do this. You need to finish your breakfast and we need to get to El Paso. I have to leave, Kyle.”
“It doesn’t matter, Tess. I don’t care where you came from. You are here now…and I want you to stay here…..stay with me.”
Her eyes watered but the tears didn’t fall. “I’d like that too, Kyle. But even if you could accept….even if your family could accept….there’s still him. He wouldn’t allow it, Kyle. He’ll kill you…kill…..well he’d kill a part of me that I can’t bear to lose. And there’s just no way that I’d be powerful enough to stop him.”
“You forget about my father. He’s the Sheriff.”
“Kyle…Nasedo kills people. He was DESIGNED to kill people. Remember that old movie, the Terminator? He’s like an organic Terminator. He doesn’t sleep, doesn’t need to eat, he can change his shape to hide or to stalk someone, he has powers that you wouldn’t believe, and he can’t be killed.”
“Tess….everything can be killed.”
“Well he can’t, Kyle. He’s not even really alive. Even if we had the power,….a lot more power than I’ve got, all we could do is drain his power down enough to have him go dormant until he could be recharged. But I doubt that I could do 10 percent of that…and he recharges his power faster than any life form that’s actually alive. If I try to fight him, he’s going to win Kyle. All I can do is run.”
“Tess, I’m not sure you’ve ever seen what happens when a 357 magnum round hits something.”
Tess pointed her hand at the brick veneer alongside the fireplace. There was a brief flash of light, a sound like a ‘thud’ and a 12 inch circle of brick shattered and fell to the floor.
“Something like that, I suppose, Kyle. Trust me, it won’t be enough….not nearly enough.”
An hour later they were driving into the center of town toward the airline ticket office. “I’ll get the car gassed up, you get two tickets. I’ll get some snacks and drinks too. It’s a four hour drive to El Paso.”
“Kyle….You can’t come. He will come after me, Kyle. I can run quicker and farther alone. I don’t need your help, and don’t want you to give up your life here.”
“If you really believe that, Tess. Why didn’t you run years ago? And what’s so great about life in Roswell…compared to life with you?”
“Because he will catch us, Kyle. No matter how far we run, no matter how long it takes, he will catch us. I need you safe. I need you to come back to.”
“Tess, I don’t understand. You talk like this guy will get you no matter what anyone does. If that’s the case, we ought to just fight him now…do it on our terms, somewhere we have the advantage. If you can’t get away from him anyway, why are you trying to run?”
She looked at him sitting beside her driving the Mustang. She really hadn’t wanted to tell him, but otherwise he was going to get himself killed. Besides, it’s hard to lie to someone you love…..even if you’ve only loved them for one day.
“Because by myself, Kyle, I can keep ahead of him. Not forever, but for long enough….long enough for our baby to be born……long enough for me to bring it back here where maybe you can find a good home for it. I have to run, Kyle, because if I don’t he’ll kill it. He has other plans for the space it’s occupying.”
It took almost a quarter mile of fish-tailing to get it back under control, but the car never quite left the road…….
“Kyle! I’m NOT eleven, I just came out of the pod eleven years ago. Besides, I’m the one who started it…when I was drunk.”
“I got an eleven year old drunk and had sex with her. My own father will be arresting me for that…”
“I am NOT an eleven year old. I was in my pod in 1947, when the ship crashed. You could just as easily consider me a fifty year-old.” ‘Damn. It’s a good thing I’m not planning on telling Kyle about the pregnancy. That would REALLY freak him out.’
”Oh no, that one went to the Supreme Court. Life doesn’t begin at conception, it begins whenever you come out. That was eleven years ago for you…You weren’t old enough to consent, even if you had wanted to….and you certainly didn’t want to that first time. I raped an eleven year-old.”
“You did not, Kyle. I,…..I sort of raped you that first time, then well the second time it started because I knew how badly I hurt you but then………Did I remember to tell you how awesome the third and fourth times were. I think you fell asleep before I could on the last one… It was great……”
“Umm! It sure was. I love the feel of you against me, even now…….”
”Kyle, NO! We can’t do this. You need to finish your breakfast and we need to get to El Paso. I have to leave, Kyle.”
“It doesn’t matter, Tess. I don’t care where you came from. You are here now…and I want you to stay here…..stay with me.”
Her eyes watered but the tears didn’t fall. “I’d like that too, Kyle. But even if you could accept….even if your family could accept….there’s still him. He wouldn’t allow it, Kyle. He’ll kill you…kill…..well he’d kill a part of me that I can’t bear to lose. And there’s just no way that I’d be powerful enough to stop him.”
“You forget about my father. He’s the Sheriff.”
“Kyle…Nasedo kills people. He was DESIGNED to kill people. Remember that old movie, the Terminator? He’s like an organic Terminator. He doesn’t sleep, doesn’t need to eat, he can change his shape to hide or to stalk someone, he has powers that you wouldn’t believe, and he can’t be killed.”
“Tess….everything can be killed.”
“Well he can’t, Kyle. He’s not even really alive. Even if we had the power,….a lot more power than I’ve got, all we could do is drain his power down enough to have him go dormant until he could be recharged. But I doubt that I could do 10 percent of that…and he recharges his power faster than any life form that’s actually alive. If I try to fight him, he’s going to win Kyle. All I can do is run.”
“Tess, I’m not sure you’ve ever seen what happens when a 357 magnum round hits something.”
Tess pointed her hand at the brick veneer alongside the fireplace. There was a brief flash of light, a sound like a ‘thud’ and a 12 inch circle of brick shattered and fell to the floor.
“Something like that, I suppose, Kyle. Trust me, it won’t be enough….not nearly enough.”
An hour later they were driving into the center of town toward the airline ticket office. “I’ll get the car gassed up, you get two tickets. I’ll get some snacks and drinks too. It’s a four hour drive to El Paso.”
“Kyle….You can’t come. He will come after me, Kyle. I can run quicker and farther alone. I don’t need your help, and don’t want you to give up your life here.”
“If you really believe that, Tess. Why didn’t you run years ago? And what’s so great about life in Roswell…compared to life with you?”
“Because he will catch us, Kyle. No matter how far we run, no matter how long it takes, he will catch us. I need you safe. I need you to come back to.”
“Tess, I don’t understand. You talk like this guy will get you no matter what anyone does. If that’s the case, we ought to just fight him now…do it on our terms, somewhere we have the advantage. If you can’t get away from him anyway, why are you trying to run?”
She looked at him sitting beside her driving the Mustang. She really hadn’t wanted to tell him, but otherwise he was going to get himself killed. Besides, it’s hard to lie to someone you love…..even if you’ve only loved them for one day.
“Because by myself, Kyle, I can keep ahead of him. Not forever, but for long enough….long enough for our baby to be born……long enough for me to bring it back here where maybe you can find a good home for it. I have to run, Kyle, because if I don’t he’ll kill it. He has other plans for the space it’s occupying.”
It took almost a quarter mile of fish-tailing to get it back under control, but the car never quite left the road…….
0915 The Crashdown birthday room, Roswell NM
“We need some more brown and orange construction paper for the decorations”
Liz smiled. She’d heard Max and Michael refer to Isabel as ‘the Christmas Nazi,’ apparently she was the ‘Thanksgiving Nazi’ as well.
The birthday room already looked like the Mayflower had landed, and Plymouth Rock had been waist-deep in turkeys when it had. And the girl was just getting going.
She wondered if Isabel’s cooking could really be as bad as Max and Michael claimed. It was hard to believe….I mean, how could you foul up a three minute egg.
But this was getting a little intense in the decorating department. They needed a little time to catch up without the decorating chairman thinking up newer and better decorations to make. All she REALLY needed to do was to keep Isabel tied up for about thirty minutes, and they’d be caught up. The trick was to figure out some way to do that…..
“Isabel, I think I have some more construction paper in the closet in my bedroom. Look in there. Alex….you go along, too. It may be hard to find in there…you may have to look for awhile.”
Max watched the two going up the stairs, both trying to hide the little smiles on their faces.
“Liz, is there really any construction paper in that closet?”
“Nope, not a bit. They’ll enjoy looking though.”
Twenty minutes later, in Liz’s closet neither Alex nor Isabel had a clue why they had originally come upstairs and gone into the closet…..but tongues were touching and hands were roaming,…..and they both would have thought, had they not already been too busy with other things, …that getting together in the closet had been an exceedingly good idea.
“We need some more brown and orange construction paper for the decorations”
Liz smiled. She’d heard Max and Michael refer to Isabel as ‘the Christmas Nazi,’ apparently she was the ‘Thanksgiving Nazi’ as well.
The birthday room already looked like the Mayflower had landed, and Plymouth Rock had been waist-deep in turkeys when it had. And the girl was just getting going.
She wondered if Isabel’s cooking could really be as bad as Max and Michael claimed. It was hard to believe….I mean, how could you foul up a three minute egg.
But this was getting a little intense in the decorating department. They needed a little time to catch up without the decorating chairman thinking up newer and better decorations to make. All she REALLY needed to do was to keep Isabel tied up for about thirty minutes, and they’d be caught up. The trick was to figure out some way to do that…..
“Isabel, I think I have some more construction paper in the closet in my bedroom. Look in there. Alex….you go along, too. It may be hard to find in there…you may have to look for awhile.”
Max watched the two going up the stairs, both trying to hide the little smiles on their faces.
“Liz, is there really any construction paper in that closet?”
“Nope, not a bit. They’ll enjoy looking though.”
Twenty minutes later, in Liz’s closet neither Alex nor Isabel had a clue why they had originally come upstairs and gone into the closet…..but tongues were touching and hands were roaming,…..and they both would have thought, had they not already been too busy with other things, …that getting together in the closet had been an exceedingly good idea.
0915 The Crashdown Café, Roswell NM
It had been kind of a spontaneous get-together for the five parents.
Diane and Philip had stopped by for coffee, and the Parkers had convinced them to have breakfast with them at the front table. Amy had dropped by the day’s supply of pies, gotten invited for coffee, and was now socializing over a cinnamon roll. Philip and Jeff were talking about Kiwanis matters, the women were making small-talk…..and watching their children through the back window that viewed into the birthday room.
Amy DeLuca watched her daughter interact with Michael Guerin. The boy could apparently do nothing right, and she was forever criticizing him and correcting him…..at least when she wasn’t pushing on him, slapping on him, or punching him in the shoulder. A passer-by would have thought Maria hated the boy, but Amy DeLuca knew better. This was how Maria acted when she wanted something she really didn’t believe she’d ever have. She’d mentally push it away, pretending it was flawed, she’d done it all her life. It really started when she was quite small, when her father had left. It had almost crushed the little girl. But she’d rallied, and told her mom that they were better off without him….that he really wasn’t a very good daddy anyway. She’d kept it up ever since. Doll’s that Amy couldn’t afford to buy her, dresses that were gorgeous but just out of their price range, ….they all got this treatment. It made it easier, somehow, for her to accept that she wouldn’t ever have that. Drive it away, then it was your idea, then the pain of its loss isn’t so great.
Michael wasn’t going though. And what was worse, they both seemed to be enjoying the ritual more and more. Maria had already told her about things he’d done….none of which seemed all that big a deal to Amy, that rendered him entirely unacceptable as a boyfriend. She’d consoled her broken-hearted daughter, and then found them back together the next day. But she was starting to realize what was really going on, as she watched the conflict between the two, and the surreptitious smiles when the other wasn’t looking. They were both enjoying the hell out of these spats, strange as that may seem. And it was almost starting to look like…..foreplay.
She’d had the talk with Maria, years ago. She wondered if maybe she ought to talk to her again…..about the pill.
Diane Evans watched her daughter. She was obviously in ‘holiday Nazi’ mode. This would generally terrify anyone around her, but it didn’t really seem to bother anyone in the birthday room, least of all Alex. It was so strange, she’d been an ice princess for so long, but this kind young man had somehow gotten through all that. She glowed when they were together, and he adored her…it was written all over his face. And all at once the ice princess was doing all sorts of little kindnesses, not missing an opportunity to be considerate to the young man…and even today, even when she was in ‘holiday Nazi’ mode and driving everyone up the walls, she still had a kind smile for him. Liz Parker and Isabel talked briefly, and Isabel and Alex went to get something. No doubt they’d be right back. They really were such a cute couple together….
Nancy Parker watched the body language going on between her daughter and Max Evans. Whatever had happened in the vault, Liz certainly wasn’t terrified of Max Evans. It was almost like they were an old married couple, almost like they read each other’s mind. They’d be standing near one another and one hand would go out and slip quietly into the other’s hand, without either even looking…almost without noticing. When they’d stand near, somehow one would seem to lean toward the other unconsciously, just enough to make slight contact.
It was almost like both of them sought….no…needed, the reassurance of the others presence. She’d never really witnessed anything like that before in a young couple….just a sort of quiet intimacy that they carried with them whenever they were together, even in public.
It worried her a little about how far they might be carrying it in less public places. It had been worrisome to believe Max might push her farther than she wanted to go but it was obvious that wasn’t going to happen. She’d never seen Max sexually aggressive with Liz, but she had a feeling that even if he was when they were alone…..well, he probably didn’t have the ability to push her farther than Liz wanted to go.
She needed to talk to her about the pill, she decided. She had been hesitant to bring it up, fearing it would give Liz ideas she hadn’t thought of, but watching the two of them together….well, she was pretty sure Liz was already having some of those thoughts anyway.
It had been kind of a spontaneous get-together for the five parents.
Diane and Philip had stopped by for coffee, and the Parkers had convinced them to have breakfast with them at the front table. Amy had dropped by the day’s supply of pies, gotten invited for coffee, and was now socializing over a cinnamon roll. Philip and Jeff were talking about Kiwanis matters, the women were making small-talk…..and watching their children through the back window that viewed into the birthday room.
Amy DeLuca watched her daughter interact with Michael Guerin. The boy could apparently do nothing right, and she was forever criticizing him and correcting him…..at least when she wasn’t pushing on him, slapping on him, or punching him in the shoulder. A passer-by would have thought Maria hated the boy, but Amy DeLuca knew better. This was how Maria acted when she wanted something she really didn’t believe she’d ever have. She’d mentally push it away, pretending it was flawed, she’d done it all her life. It really started when she was quite small, when her father had left. It had almost crushed the little girl. But she’d rallied, and told her mom that they were better off without him….that he really wasn’t a very good daddy anyway. She’d kept it up ever since. Doll’s that Amy couldn’t afford to buy her, dresses that were gorgeous but just out of their price range, ….they all got this treatment. It made it easier, somehow, for her to accept that she wouldn’t ever have that. Drive it away, then it was your idea, then the pain of its loss isn’t so great.
Michael wasn’t going though. And what was worse, they both seemed to be enjoying the ritual more and more. Maria had already told her about things he’d done….none of which seemed all that big a deal to Amy, that rendered him entirely unacceptable as a boyfriend. She’d consoled her broken-hearted daughter, and then found them back together the next day. But she was starting to realize what was really going on, as she watched the conflict between the two, and the surreptitious smiles when the other wasn’t looking. They were both enjoying the hell out of these spats, strange as that may seem. And it was almost starting to look like…..foreplay.
She’d had the talk with Maria, years ago. She wondered if maybe she ought to talk to her again…..about the pill.
Diane Evans watched her daughter. She was obviously in ‘holiday Nazi’ mode. This would generally terrify anyone around her, but it didn’t really seem to bother anyone in the birthday room, least of all Alex. It was so strange, she’d been an ice princess for so long, but this kind young man had somehow gotten through all that. She glowed when they were together, and he adored her…it was written all over his face. And all at once the ice princess was doing all sorts of little kindnesses, not missing an opportunity to be considerate to the young man…and even today, even when she was in ‘holiday Nazi’ mode and driving everyone up the walls, she still had a kind smile for him. Liz Parker and Isabel talked briefly, and Isabel and Alex went to get something. No doubt they’d be right back. They really were such a cute couple together….
Nancy Parker watched the body language going on between her daughter and Max Evans. Whatever had happened in the vault, Liz certainly wasn’t terrified of Max Evans. It was almost like they were an old married couple, almost like they read each other’s mind. They’d be standing near one another and one hand would go out and slip quietly into the other’s hand, without either even looking…almost without noticing. When they’d stand near, somehow one would seem to lean toward the other unconsciously, just enough to make slight contact.
It was almost like both of them sought….no…needed, the reassurance of the others presence. She’d never really witnessed anything like that before in a young couple….just a sort of quiet intimacy that they carried with them whenever they were together, even in public.
It worried her a little about how far they might be carrying it in less public places. It had been worrisome to believe Max might push her farther than she wanted to go but it was obvious that wasn’t going to happen. She’d never seen Max sexually aggressive with Liz, but she had a feeling that even if he was when they were alone…..well, he probably didn’t have the ability to push her farther than Liz wanted to go.
She needed to talk to her about the pill, she decided. She had been hesitant to bring it up, fearing it would give Liz ideas she hadn’t thought of, but watching the two of them together….well, she was pretty sure Liz was already having some of those thoughts anyway.
Parking Lot, Cahoon Park, Roswell NM.
Kyle was trying to not hyperventilate.
Tess looked at him and smiled. “I probably could have broken that to you a little better. I’m sorry.”
“Tess, it’s been less than 24 hours…..No test would have turned positive this quickly.”
“Kyle, all I can do is connect with you and show you what I see. Everyone has an aura, even me. But last night I started having two, my usual one and a small one in my pelvis….just like every pregnant woman I’ve ever seen. It’s true. I’m a lot of things, maybe, but …I wouldn’t lie to you about something like that.”
As the connection started, Kyle viewed the world through Tess’s eyes, with himself sitting next to her. Sure enough, there was this aura around her…..and the cutest little aura coming from her lower abdomen, But in the flashes…there was something deeper. A vision in her mind…no, more of a hope, that she would live to give birth to that being. And he could read in the flashes what her fears were, not for herself, but for that small aura….and for Kyle Valenti. She was going to run….to take her chances trying to evade the shapeshifter for ten months, to bring that hope to reality.
Kyle looked at Tess….neither of them were saints, but whatever else Tess had done, in Kyle Valenti’s eyes, this had redeemed her. She was willing to give her life for their innocent child. At that moment he realized that wherever she was, whatever happened to her, he would never love anyone else.
“I’m going with you. You can’t be awake all the time, you can’t always be on guard. I’m not leaving you, Tess.”
She had known the words were coming….saw them through the connection even before he said them. She knew she’d have to break her promise….to mindwarp him again to stay while she ran. She couldn’t take his life away from him…and certainly couldn’t watch him die when they were eventually caught. And ultimately, she had no doubt Nasedo would catch them. But she couldn’t argue with him now….not after feeling how he felt toward her through the connection. But even she was surprised by his next comment. She blinked back tears as the words rolled over her, feeling her heart suddenly melt.
“And Tess….before the baby is born, ….we need to get married.”
Tess was still blinking back tears 10 minutes later as they pulled in to the Texaco gas station across the road from the Crashdown.
"So...can you tell if it's a boy or a girl?"
"No. I just see auras. I'm not an ultrasound...and it's even too early for that. But it's going to look like you...I'm sure of it."
"You think so?"
"Yeah, except for the green skin and antennae, I'll bet it's the spitting image of its daddy."
"Uh...green skin and antennae?"
"Kidding, Kyle. Just kidding." She'd said that to reassure him before she'd really noticed. Kyle hadn't been all that upset.
'He really would have loved it anyway...'
Somehow Tess Harding, the girl who'd believed that earthlings were inferior...no better than animals...somehow that girl had changed completely.
She had never wanted anything more in her life than she now wanted to stay with Kyle, be his wife....love him forever. But it would doom him. She had to run.
Kyle was trying to not hyperventilate.
Tess looked at him and smiled. “I probably could have broken that to you a little better. I’m sorry.”
“Tess, it’s been less than 24 hours…..No test would have turned positive this quickly.”
“Kyle, all I can do is connect with you and show you what I see. Everyone has an aura, even me. But last night I started having two, my usual one and a small one in my pelvis….just like every pregnant woman I’ve ever seen. It’s true. I’m a lot of things, maybe, but …I wouldn’t lie to you about something like that.”
As the connection started, Kyle viewed the world through Tess’s eyes, with himself sitting next to her. Sure enough, there was this aura around her…..and the cutest little aura coming from her lower abdomen, But in the flashes…there was something deeper. A vision in her mind…no, more of a hope, that she would live to give birth to that being. And he could read in the flashes what her fears were, not for herself, but for that small aura….and for Kyle Valenti. She was going to run….to take her chances trying to evade the shapeshifter for ten months, to bring that hope to reality.
Kyle looked at Tess….neither of them were saints, but whatever else Tess had done, in Kyle Valenti’s eyes, this had redeemed her. She was willing to give her life for their innocent child. At that moment he realized that wherever she was, whatever happened to her, he would never love anyone else.
“I’m going with you. You can’t be awake all the time, you can’t always be on guard. I’m not leaving you, Tess.”
She had known the words were coming….saw them through the connection even before he said them. She knew she’d have to break her promise….to mindwarp him again to stay while she ran. She couldn’t take his life away from him…and certainly couldn’t watch him die when they were eventually caught. And ultimately, she had no doubt Nasedo would catch them. But she couldn’t argue with him now….not after feeling how he felt toward her through the connection. But even she was surprised by his next comment. She blinked back tears as the words rolled over her, feeling her heart suddenly melt.
“And Tess….before the baby is born, ….we need to get married.”
Tess was still blinking back tears 10 minutes later as they pulled in to the Texaco gas station across the road from the Crashdown.
"So...can you tell if it's a boy or a girl?"
"No. I just see auras. I'm not an ultrasound...and it's even too early for that. But it's going to look like you...I'm sure of it."
"You think so?"
"Yeah, except for the green skin and antennae, I'll bet it's the spitting image of its daddy."
"Uh...green skin and antennae?"
"Kidding, Kyle. Just kidding." She'd said that to reassure him before she'd really noticed. Kyle hadn't been all that upset.
'He really would have loved it anyway...'
Somehow Tess Harding, the girl who'd believed that earthlings were inferior...no better than animals...somehow that girl had changed completely.
She had never wanted anything more in her life than she now wanted to stay with Kyle, be his wife....love him forever. But it would doom him. She had to run.
Tess was on her way back from the ticket office with an evening ticket from El Paso to San Francisco. She would, of course, only use it to confuse Nasedo. She was going East, most likely to Dallas-Fort Worth, then to the East Coast, then to Europe. She had emptied the house of money and had quite a bit, really. Even so, Kyle had forced her to take the $600 he got out of the ATM.
She was wishing that they could have one more night…but she couldn’t risk it. Nasedo was often unpredictable, sometimes returning days before or after he had originally planned. It would have been great to spend the night with him….to go to that Thanksgiving dinner with everyone tomorrow, but she couldn’t take that chance, as much as she would love to do it, it was too much of a danger.... for Kyle, ....for the baby. She needed all the head start she could get…and even then there were risks.
She was less than half a block away from the red Mustang already thinking about the bittersweet ride coming up….four hours to El Paso, sitting next to the guy she loved….the guy she would not see for 10 months. Her eyes were on the Mustang and the door to the little convenience food store where he was getting them snacks. Her eyes should have been on the alley.
The car pulled out and blocked her path. Nasedo stepped out and looked at her angrily. He looked meaningfully at her lower abdomen and shook his head.
“Get in the car, Tess.”
Her eyes went quickly to the red Mustang. She’d never make it to the car, and even if she did…it wouldn’t matter. All she would be doing was bringing death to Kyle, and she couldn’t do that….couldn’t take that chance.
“I believe the phrase is ‘ a bun in the oven', Tess. How very inconvenient. I take it I shall have to kill the Sheriff’s son for interfering with our plans.”
“It wasn’t Kyle….or, at least I don’t think it was. He took me to a party…the whole football team was there. I think someone spiked the punch…you never told me what alcohol would do…”
“Oh, that’s right…how silly of me. They mentioned at the factory that your series wasn’t tolerant of Earth alcoholic beverages. So was it the young man, or not?”
“I don’t know….I don’t think so. I think it might have been the quarterback, or one of the guys on the offensive line. Or maybe defense. It might even have been Kyle, I can’t remember all the faces. It wasn’t the middle linebacker…I think he was gay..”
Nasedo laughed. “See, I told you in fifth grade that it wasn’t that bad…that you might even like it. I have to admit that the thought of the ‘queen’ of 6 billion beings behaving like a slut because of a little alcohol is very amusing. And since I really can’t afford the attention of killing the entire high school football team, minus, of course, your precious middle linebacker, I may just have to let things go. And even if it was the sheriff’s son…even if you are lying to me, well it was a good story and perhaps we owe him for getting you over your little phobia. Perhaps we’ll let him live. This does cause a little complication though. We will of course need to immediately get rid of the little parasite though.”
Her heart had soared briefly when she heard Nasedo telling her he’d let Kyle live, but she struggled to conceal the horror his last words had brought to her. It still hadn’t been 24 hours, but pregnancy changes everything. ‘He’s going to kill my baby,’ she thought.
“I was going to go to El Paso…I’d fooled him into agreeing to take me there. I was going to have an operation…..an abortion, at the clinic there. You know…so I’d be ready for Max.”
“Well then I’ve saved you an eight hour round trip. You ought to be thankful, Tess. You know, I really didn’t know much about this reproduction business, not having the appropriate equipment personally, if you’ll recall….but I’ve spent the last three days at the University of California Davis Veterinary school and you know, it really isn’t all that complicated at all. I’ve come up with a marvelous plan that will get this done promptly….as soon as I can prepare you.
And as for this parasite…,"he placed his palm above her abdomen and it glowed golden, and she instantly put her hands over her lap to stop him.
“Oh, I wouldn’t do it here…like this. I might accidentally burn something we’ll need later. But I’ll tell you about the plan as I drive you out to the pod chamber….it’s really quite brilliant, if I do say so myself. Then I’ll just put my hand on your lower abdomen and send a small beam of heat, right into the center of that aura. This early, just heating it to 140 degrees or so should do it. Then when the little bugger sloughs out, we’ll be all set. With any luck at all, I should be on my way back to Antar with you in five or six weeks.”
The Mustang had been fueled, and Kyle was on his way out the door when the car drove by. He saw a terror stricken Tess in the front passenger seat. That was all it took. The Mustang was pointed in the wrong direction, but Kyle hit the gas and slid the rear of the car around to follow Tess in a maneuver that would have even gotten the Sheriff’s son arrested, had there been a policeman nearby.
The car had only had a block and a half head start and he was gaining fast when the small child stepped off the curb in front of him. He hit the brakes, knowing that it would be too late. The car slid sidewise and Kyle watched in horror as the right side of the car moved into the young girl…who was slammed forward. The Mustang came to a stop lodged against the brick building, not too badly damaged.
He looked back at the young girl he’d hit, doubting she could have survived that impact, but needing to know for sure. He ran to her body and as he got close, was amazed to see her stand up and turn to face him. She was young, blonde, and familiar somehow. She aged before his eyes, going from six or seven years old to…..a seventeen year old Tess Harding. She looked up at him tearfully, “I’m sorry Kyle, but he would have killed you if I’d let you catch up to us. I’m so sorry. I love you too much to let you die.” The image rippled and was gone.
He looked desperately up the street. The car was no longer in sight.
She was wishing that they could have one more night…but she couldn’t risk it. Nasedo was often unpredictable, sometimes returning days before or after he had originally planned. It would have been great to spend the night with him….to go to that Thanksgiving dinner with everyone tomorrow, but she couldn’t take that chance, as much as she would love to do it, it was too much of a danger.... for Kyle, ....for the baby. She needed all the head start she could get…and even then there were risks.
She was less than half a block away from the red Mustang already thinking about the bittersweet ride coming up….four hours to El Paso, sitting next to the guy she loved….the guy she would not see for 10 months. Her eyes were on the Mustang and the door to the little convenience food store where he was getting them snacks. Her eyes should have been on the alley.
The car pulled out and blocked her path. Nasedo stepped out and looked at her angrily. He looked meaningfully at her lower abdomen and shook his head.
“Get in the car, Tess.”
Her eyes went quickly to the red Mustang. She’d never make it to the car, and even if she did…it wouldn’t matter. All she would be doing was bringing death to Kyle, and she couldn’t do that….couldn’t take that chance.
“I believe the phrase is ‘ a bun in the oven', Tess. How very inconvenient. I take it I shall have to kill the Sheriff’s son for interfering with our plans.”
“It wasn’t Kyle….or, at least I don’t think it was. He took me to a party…the whole football team was there. I think someone spiked the punch…you never told me what alcohol would do…”
“Oh, that’s right…how silly of me. They mentioned at the factory that your series wasn’t tolerant of Earth alcoholic beverages. So was it the young man, or not?”
“I don’t know….I don’t think so. I think it might have been the quarterback, or one of the guys on the offensive line. Or maybe defense. It might even have been Kyle, I can’t remember all the faces. It wasn’t the middle linebacker…I think he was gay..”
Nasedo laughed. “See, I told you in fifth grade that it wasn’t that bad…that you might even like it. I have to admit that the thought of the ‘queen’ of 6 billion beings behaving like a slut because of a little alcohol is very amusing. And since I really can’t afford the attention of killing the entire high school football team, minus, of course, your precious middle linebacker, I may just have to let things go. And even if it was the sheriff’s son…even if you are lying to me, well it was a good story and perhaps we owe him for getting you over your little phobia. Perhaps we’ll let him live. This does cause a little complication though. We will of course need to immediately get rid of the little parasite though.”
Her heart had soared briefly when she heard Nasedo telling her he’d let Kyle live, but she struggled to conceal the horror his last words had brought to her. It still hadn’t been 24 hours, but pregnancy changes everything. ‘He’s going to kill my baby,’ she thought.
“I was going to go to El Paso…I’d fooled him into agreeing to take me there. I was going to have an operation…..an abortion, at the clinic there. You know…so I’d be ready for Max.”
“Well then I’ve saved you an eight hour round trip. You ought to be thankful, Tess. You know, I really didn’t know much about this reproduction business, not having the appropriate equipment personally, if you’ll recall….but I’ve spent the last three days at the University of California Davis Veterinary school and you know, it really isn’t all that complicated at all. I’ve come up with a marvelous plan that will get this done promptly….as soon as I can prepare you.
And as for this parasite…,"he placed his palm above her abdomen and it glowed golden, and she instantly put her hands over her lap to stop him.
“Oh, I wouldn’t do it here…like this. I might accidentally burn something we’ll need later. But I’ll tell you about the plan as I drive you out to the pod chamber….it’s really quite brilliant, if I do say so myself. Then I’ll just put my hand on your lower abdomen and send a small beam of heat, right into the center of that aura. This early, just heating it to 140 degrees or so should do it. Then when the little bugger sloughs out, we’ll be all set. With any luck at all, I should be on my way back to Antar with you in five or six weeks.”
The Mustang had been fueled, and Kyle was on his way out the door when the car drove by. He saw a terror stricken Tess in the front passenger seat. That was all it took. The Mustang was pointed in the wrong direction, but Kyle hit the gas and slid the rear of the car around to follow Tess in a maneuver that would have even gotten the Sheriff’s son arrested, had there been a policeman nearby.
The car had only had a block and a half head start and he was gaining fast when the small child stepped off the curb in front of him. He hit the brakes, knowing that it would be too late. The car slid sidewise and Kyle watched in horror as the right side of the car moved into the young girl…who was slammed forward. The Mustang came to a stop lodged against the brick building, not too badly damaged.
He looked back at the young girl he’d hit, doubting she could have survived that impact, but needing to know for sure. He ran to her body and as he got close, was amazed to see her stand up and turn to face him. She was young, blonde, and familiar somehow. She aged before his eyes, going from six or seven years old to…..a seventeen year old Tess Harding. She looked up at him tearfully, “I’m sorry Kyle, but he would have killed you if I’d let you catch up to us. I’m so sorry. I love you too much to let you die.” The image rippled and was gone.
He looked desperately up the street. The car was no longer in sight.